


j: 



POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS, 



AND 



THE TRUTHS CONTAINED THEREIN, 



ACCOUNT OF MESMERISM. 



HERBERT MAYO, M.D., 

FORMERLY SENIOR SURGEON OF MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL; PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND 

PHYSIOLOGY IN KING'S COLLEGE; PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 

IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON, 

F.R.S., F.G.S., ETC. 



FROM THE THIRD LONDON EDITION. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

LINDSAY AND BLAKISTON. 

1852. 






WM. S. YOUNG, I'RINTEK. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



In the following Letters I have endeavoured to exhibit 
in their true light the singular natural phenomena of 
which old superstition and modern charlatanism in turn 
availed themselves — to indicate their laws, and to develope 
their theory. The subject is so important that I might 
well have approached it in a severer guise. But, slight 
as this performance may appear, I profess to have em- 
ployed upon it the keenest and most patient efforts of 
reflection of which I am capable. And as to its tone at 
the commencement, and the prominence given to popular 
and trivial topics, I candidly avow that, without some 
such artifice, I doubt whether I should have found a pub- 
lisher of repute to publish, or a circle of readers to read, 
my lucubrations. 

"Cosi alP egro fancuil porgiamo aspersi 
Di soave licor gli orli del vaso ; 
Succhi amari ingannato intanto ei beve, 
E dalP inganno suo vita riceve." 

It was in the winter of 1846 that the original seven 
Letters were written, of which the present fourteen are 
the third and expanded reprint. The hour had come for 



IV PREFATORY REMARKS. 

successfully assailing certain already shaking prejudices 
of the reading public. The Selbstschau of Zschokke, 
and the researches of Von Reichenbach, were in the hands 
of the literary and philosophic. The seer-gift of the 
former (see Letter IV.) had established the fact that one 
mind can enter into direct though one-si$ed communion 
with another. The undenied Od-force of the latter (see 
Letter I.) is evidently the same influence with that, the 
first crude announcement of which, by Mesmer, had 
scared the world into disbelief. It had now become 
possible to explain ghostly warnings, and popular pro- 
phecies, the wonders of natural trance, and of animal 
magnetism, without having recourse to a single unproven 
principle. I therefore made the attempt; other more effi- 
cient labourers have co-operated in the same object; and 
public opinion is no longer hostile to this class of inquiries. 



Bad Weilbach ? near Mayence, 
1st August j 1851. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. The Divining-Rod.— Description of, and mode 
of using the same — Mr. Fairholm's statement — M. de 
Tristan's statement — Account of Von Reichenbach's Od- 
force — -The Author's own observations, ... 9 

LETTER II. Vampyrism.— Tale exemplifying the superstition 
— The Vampyr state of the body in the grave — Various 
instances of death-trance — -The risk of premature inter- 
ment considered — -The Vampyr visit, ... 30 

LETTER III. Unreal Ghosts. — Law of sensorial illusions 
—Cases of Nicolai, Schwedenborg, Joan of Arc— Fetches 
— Churchyard ghosts, ...... 53 

LETTER IV. True Ghosts. — The apparitions themselves 
always sensorial illusions — The truth of their com- 
munications accounted for — Zschokke's seer-gift de- 
scribed, to show the possibility of direct mental com- 
munication — Second-sight — The true relation of the 
mind to the living body, . . . . . 70 

LETTER V. Trance. — Distinction of esoneural and exoneu- 
ral mental phenomena — Abnormal relation of the mind 
and nervous system possible — Insanity — Sleep — Essen- 
tial nature of trance — Its alliance with spasmodic sei- 
zures — General characters of trance — Enumeration of 
kinds, 86 



VI CONTENTS. 

LETTER VI. Trance-Sleep. — The phenomena of trance 
divided into those of trance-sleep, and those of trance- 
waking — Trance-sleep presents three forms; Trance- 
waking two. The three forms of trance sleep described ; 
viz. ? death-trance, trance-coma, simple or initiatory 
trance, ......... 98 

LETTER VII. Half-waking Trance, or Somnambulism. — 
The same thing with ordinary sleep-walking— Its charac- 
teristic feature, the acting of a dream — Cases, and dis- 
quisition, ........ 106 

LETTER VIII. Trance-waking. — Instances of its sponta- 
neous occurrence in the form of catalepsy — Analysis of 
catalepsy — its three elements: double consciousness, or - 
pure waking-trance: the spasmodic seizure; the new 
mental powers displayed— Cases exemplifying catalepsy 
— Other cases unattended with spasm, but of spontane- 
ous occurrence, in which new mental powers were 
manifested — Oracles of antiquity — Animal instinct — In- 
tuition, ........ 116 

LETTER IX. Religious Delusions. — The seizures giving 
rise to them shown to have been forms of trance brought 
on by fanatical excitement — The Cevennes — Scenes at 
the tomb of the Abbe Paris — Revivals in America — The 
Ecstatica of Caldaro — -Three forms of imputed demo- 
niacal possession — Witchcraft; its marvels, and the so- 
lution, ......... 136 

LETTER X. Mesmerism. — Use of chloroform— History of 
Mesmer — The true nature and extent of his discovery 
— Its applications to medicine and surgery — Various 
effects produced by mesmeric manipulations — Hysteric 



CONTENTS. Vll 

seizures — St. Veitz's dance — Nervous paralysis — Cato- 
chus — Initiatory trance — The order in which the higher 
trance-phenomena are afterwards generally drawn out, 153 

LETTER XI. Supplemental.— Abnormal neuro-psychical re- 
lation — Cautions necessary in receiving trance com- 
munications — Trance-visiting — Mesmerising at a dis- 
tance; and by the will — Mesmeric diagnosis and treat- 
ment of disease — Prevision — Ultra-vital vision, . 175 

LETTER XII. The Odometer or Divining-Ring. — How 
come upon by the author — His first experiments — The 
phenomena an objective proof of the reality of the Od- 
force ; 209 

LETTER XIII. The Solution.-— Examination of the genuine- 
ness of the phenomena — Od-motions produced by bodies 
in their most inert state — Analysis of the forces which 
originate them — Od-motions connected with electrical, 
magnetic, chemical, crystalline, and vital influences— 
Their analysis, . . . . . . . 219 

Postscript. — Further analysis of Od-motions — Proof of their 

genuineness — Explanation of their immediate cause, 242 

LETTER XIV. Hypnotism. Trance-Umbra.— Mr. Braid's 
discovery — Trance-faculties manifested in the waking 
state — Self-induced waking clairvoyance — Conclusion, 248 



ON POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



LETTER I. 



The Divining Rod. — Description of and mode of using the same — 
Mr. Fairholm's statement — M. de Tristan's statement — Account 
of Von Reichenbach's Od force — The Author's own observations , 

Dear Archy, — As a resource in the solitary evenings 
of commencing winter, it occurred to me to look into the 
long-neglected lore of the marvellous, the mystical, the 
supernatural. I remembered the deep awe with which 
I had listened, many a year ago, to tales of seers, ghosts, 
vampyrs, and all the dark brood of night. And I thought 
it would be infinitely agreeable to thrill again with mys- 
terious terrors, to start in my chair at the closing of a 
distant door, to raise my eyes with uneasy apprehension 
towards the mirror opposite, and to feel my skin creep 
through the sensible "afflatus" of an invisible presence. 
I entered, accordingly, upon a very promising course of 
appalling reading. But, a-lack and well-a-day ! a change 
had come over me since the good old times when fancy, 
with fear and superstition behind her, would creep on 
tiptoe to catch a shuddering glimpse of Kobbold, Fay, 
or incubus. Vain were all my efforts to revive the 
pleasant horrors of earlier years: it was as if I bad 
2 



10 THE DIVINING KOD. 

planned going to a play to enjoy again the full gusto of 
scenic illusion, and, through absence of mind, was attend- 
ing a morning rehearsal only; when, instead of what I 
had anticipated, great-coats, hats, umbrellas, and ordi- 
nary men and women, masks, tinsel, trap-doors, pulleys, 
and a world of intricate machinery, lit by a partial gleam 
of sunshine, had met my view. The enchantment was 
no longer there — the spell was broken, 

Yet, on second thoughts, the daylight scene was worth 
contemplating. A new object, of stronger interest, sug- 
gested itself. I might examine and learn the mechanism 
of the illusions which had failed to furnish me the pro- 
jected entertainment. In the books I had looked into, 
I discerned a clue to the explanation of many wonderful 
stories, which I could hitherto only seriously meet by 
disbelief. I saw that phenomena, which before had ap- 
peared isolated, depended upon a common principle, itself 
allied with a variety of other singular facts and observa- 
tions, which wanted only to be placed in philosophical 
juxtaposition to be recognised as belonging to science. 
So I determined to employ the leisure before me upon an 
inquiry into the amount of truth in popular superstitions, 
certain that, if the attempt were not premature, the 
labour would be well repaid. There must be a real 
foundation for the belief of ages. There can be no pre- 
valent delusion without a corresponding truth. The 
visionary promises of alchemy foreshadowed the solid 
performances of modern chemistry, as the debased wor- 
ship of the Egyptians implied the existence of a proper 
object of worship. 

Among the immortal productions of the Scottish 
Shakspeare — you smile, but that phrase contains the 
true belief, not a popular delusion; for the spirit of the 



THE DIVINING ROD. 11 

poet lives not in the form of his works, but in his creative 
power and vivid intuitions of nature; and the form even 
is often nearer than you think : — but this excursiveness 
will never do; so, to begin again. 

Among the novels of Scott — I intended to say — there is 
not one more wins upon us than the Antiquary. Nowhere 
has the great author more gently and indulgently, never 
with happier humour, portrayed the mixed web of strength 
and infirmity in human character; never, besides, with 
more facile power evoked pathos and terror, and disported 
himself amid the sublimity and beauty of nature. Yet, 
gentle as is his mood, he misses not the opportunity — 
albeit, in general, he displays an honest leaning towards 
old superstitions — mercilessly to crush one of the hum- 
blest. Do you remember the Priory of St. Ruth, and 
the summer-party made to visit it, and the preparations 
for the subsequent rogueries of Dousterswivel in the 
tale of Martin Waldeck, and the discovery of a spring 
of water by means of the divining rod? 

I am inclined, do you know, to dispute the verdict of 
the novelist on this occasion, and to take the part of the 
charlatan against the author of his being ; as far, at least, 
as regards the genuineness of the art the said charlatan 
then and there affected to practise. There exists, in fact, 
strong evidence to show that, in competent hands, the 
divining rod really does what is pretended of it. This 
evidence I propose to put before you in the present 
letter. But, as the subject may be entirely new to you> 
I had best begin by describing what is meant by a di- 
vining rod, and in what the imputed jugglery consists. 

Then you are to learn that, in mining districts, a su- 
perstition prevails among the people that some are born 
gifted with an occult power of detecting the proximity of 



12 THE DIVINING ROD. 

veins of metal, and of underground currents of water. 
In Cornwall, they hold that about one in forty possesses 
this faculty. The mode of exercising it is very simple. 
They cut a hazel twig, just below where it forks. Having 
stripped the leaves off, they cut each branch to something 
more than a foot in length, leaving the stump three inches 
long. This implement is the divining rod, The hazel 
is selected for the purpose, because it branches more 
symmetrically than its neighbours. The hazel-fork is to 
be held by the branches, one in either hand, the stump 
or point projecting straight forwards. The arms of the 
experimenter hang by his sides; but the elbows being 
bent at a right angle} the fore-arms are advanced hori- 
zontally ; the hands are held eight to ten inches apart ; 
the knuckles down, and the thumbs outwards. The ends 
of the branches of the divining fork appear between the 
roots of the thumbs and fore-fingers. 

The operator, thus armed, walks over the ground he 
intends exploring, in the full expectation that, if he pos- 
sesses the mystic gift, as soon as he passes over a vein 
of metal, or an underground spring, the hazel-fork will 
begin to move spontaneously in his hands, rising or fall- 
ing as the case may be. 

You are possibly amused at my gravely stating, as a 
fact, an event so unlikely. It is, indeed, natural that 
you should suppose the whole a juggle, and think the 
seemingly spontaneous motion of the divining fork to be 
really com municated to it by the hands of the conjurer 
— by a sleight, in fact, which he puts in practice when 
he believes that he is walking over a hidden water-course, 
or wishes you to believe that there is a vein of metal 
near. Well, I thought as you do the greater part of my 
life ; and probably the likeliest way of combating your 



THE DIVINING ROD. 13 

skepticism, will be to tell you how my own conversion 
took place. 

In the summer of 1843 I dwelt under the same roof 
with a Scottish gentleman, well informed, of a serious 
turn of mind, fully endowed with the national allowance 
of shrewdness and caution. I saw a good deal of him; 
and one day, by chance, this subject of the divining rod 
was mentioned. He told me, that at one time his cu- 
riosity having been raised upon the subject, he had taken 
pains to ascertain what there is in it. With this object 
in view he had obtained an introduction to Mrs. R., sister 
of Sir G. R., then living at Southampton, whom he had 
learned to be one of those in whose hands the divining 
rod moved. He visited the lady, w r ho was polite enough 
to show him in what the performance consists, and to 
answer all his questions, and to assist him in making 
experiments calculated to test the reality of the pheno- 
menon, and to elucidate its cause. 

Mrs. R. told my friend that, being at Cheltenham in 
L806, she saw, for the first time, the divining rod used by 
Mrs. Colonel Beaumont, who possessed the power of im- 
parting motion to it in a very remarkable degree. Mrs. 
R. tried the experiment herself at that time, but without 
any success. She was, as it happened, very far from 
well. Afterwards, in the year 1815, being asked by a 
friend how the divining rod is held, and how it is to bo 
used, on showing it she was surprised to see that the in- 
strument now moved in her hands. 

Since then, whenever she had repeated the experiment, 
the power had always manifested itself, though with vary- 
ing degrees of energy. 

Mrs. R. then took my friend to a part of the shrub- 
bery where she knew, from former trials, the divining 

2* 



14 THE DIVINING ROD. 

rod would move in her hands. It did so, to my friend's 
extreme astonishment; and even continued to move, 
when, availing himself of Mrs. R.'s permission, my friend 
grasped her hands with sufficient firmness to prevent, 
as he supposed, any muscular action of her wrists or 
fingers influencing the result. 

On a subsequent day my friend having thought over 
what he had seen, repeated his visit to the lady. He 
provided himself, as substitutes for the hazel-fork which 
he had seen her employ, with portions of copper and iron 
wire about a foot and a half long, bent something into 
the form of the letter V. He had made, in fact, divining 
forks of wire, wanting only the projecting point. He 
found that these instruments moved quite as freely in 
Mrs. R.'s hands as the hazel-fork had done. Then he 
coated the two handles of one of them with sealing-wax, 
leaving, however, the extreme ends free and uncovered. 
When Mrs. R. tried the rod so prepared, holding the 
parts alone which were covered with sealing-wax, and 
walked on the same piece of ground as in the former ex- 
periments, the rod remained perfectly still. As often, 
however, as — with no greater change than adjusting her 
hands so as to touch the free ends of the wire with her 
thumbs — Mrs. R. renewed direct contact with the instru- 
ment, it again moved. The motion ceasecT again as often 
as the direct contact was interrupted. 

This simple narrative, made to me by the late Mr. 
George Fairholm, carried conviction to my mind of the 
reality of the phenomenon. I asked my friend why he 
had not pursued the subject further. He said he had 
often thought of doing so, and had, he believed, mainly 
been deterred by meeting with the work of the Compte 
de Tristan, entitled Recherches sur quelques effluves ter~ 



THE DIVINING ROD. 15 

restres, Paris, 1829, in which facts similar to those which 
he had himself verified were given, and a number of ad- 
ditional curious experiments detailed. 

At Mr. Fairholm's instance I procured the book, and, 
at a later period, read it. I may say that it both satis- 
fied and disappointed me. It satisfied me, inasmuch as 
it fully confirmed all that Mr. Fairholm had stated. It 
disappointed me, for it threw no additional light upon 
the phenomena. M. de Tristan had in fact brought too 
little physical knowledge to the investigation, so that a 
large proportion of his experiments are puerile. How- 
ever, his simpler experiments are valuable and suggestive. 
These I will presently describe. In the mean time, you 
shall hear the count's own narrative of his initiation into 
the mysteries of the divining rod. 

"The history of my researches," says M. de Tristan, 
" is simply this. Some twenty years ago, a gentleman 
who, from his position in society, could have no object to 
gain by deception, showed to me, for my amusement, the 
movement of the divining rod. He attributed the motion 
to the influence of a current of water, which appeared to 
me a probable supposition. But my attention was more 
engaged with the action produced by the influence, let 
the latter be what it might. My informant assured me 
he had met with many others in whom the same effects 
were manifested. When I returned home, and had op- 
portunities of making trials under favourable circum- 
stances, I found that I myself possessed the same en- 
dowment. Since then I have induced many to make the 
experiment, and I have found a fourth, or certainly a 
fifth, of the number capable of setting the divining rod 
in motion at the very first attempt. Since that time, during 
these twenty years, I have often tried my hand, but for 



16 THE DIVINING ROD. 

amusement only, and desultorily, and without any idea 
of making the thing an object of scientific investigation. 
But at length, in the year 1822, being in the country, 
and removed from my ordinary pursuits, the subject 
again came across me, and I determined forthwith to 
try and ascertain the cause of this phenomena. Accord- 
ingly, I commenced a long series of experiments, from 
fifteen to eighteen hundred in number, which occupied 
me nearly fifteen months. The results of above tw T elve 
hundred were written down at the time of their per- 
formance. " 

The scene of the Count's operations was in the valley 
of the Loire, five leagues from Vendome, in the park of 
the Chateau de Ranac. The surface of ground which 
gave the desired results was from seventy to eighty feet 
in breadth. But there was another spot equally efficient 
at the Count's ordinary residence at Emerillon, near 
Clery, four leagues south of Orleans, ten leagues south 
of the Loire, at the commencement of the plains of So- 
longe. The surface ran from north to south, and had 
the same breadth with the other. These " exciting tracts " 
form, in general, bands or zones of undetermined, and 
often very great length. Their breadth is very variable ; 
some are only three or four feet across, while others are 
one hundred paces. These tracts are sometimes sinuous; 
in other instances they ramify. To the most susceptible 
they are broader than to those who are less so. 

M. de Tristan thus describes what happens when a 
competent person, armed with a hazel-fork, walks over 
the exciting districts : — 

When two or three steps have been made upon the ex- 
citing tract of ground, the fork, which at starting is held 
horizontally, with the point forwards, begins gently to 



THE DIVINING ROD. 17 

ascend ; it gradually attains a vertical position ; some- 
times it passes beyond that, and lowering itself, with its 
point to the chest of the operator, it becomes again ho- 
rizontal. If the motion continues, the rod descending 
becomes vertical, with the point downwards. Finally, 
the rod may again ascend and resume its first position. 
When the action is very lively, the rod immediately com- 
mences a second revolution; and so it goes on, as long 
as the operator continues to walk over the exciting sur- 
face of ground. 

A few of those in whose hands the divining fork moves 
exhibit a remarkable peculiarity. The instrument, in- 
stead of commencing its motion by ascending, descends; 
the point then becomes directed vertically downwards; 
afterwards it reascends, and completes a revolution in a 
course the opposite of the usual one; and as often and 
as long as its motion is excited, it pursues this abnormal 
course. 

Of the numerous experiments made by M. de Tristan, 
the following are among the simplest and the best : — 

He covered both handles of a divining rod with a thick 
silk stuff. The result of using the instrument so 'pre- 
pared was the same which Mr. Fairholm obtained by 
coating the handles with sealing-wax. The motion of the 
divining rod was extinguished. 

He covered both handles with one layer of a thin silk. 
He then found that the motion of the divining rod took 
place, but it was less lively and vigorous than ordinary. 

By covering one handle of the divining rod, and that 
the right, with a layer of thin silk, a very singular and 
instructive result was obtained. The motion of the in- 
strument was now reversed. It commenced by descend- 
ing. 



18 THB DIVINING ROD. 

After covering the point of the divining rod with a 
thick layer of silk stuff, the motion was sensibly more 
brisk than it had been before. 

When the Count held in his hands a straight rod of 
the same substance conjointly with the ordinary divining 
rod, no movement of the latter whatsoever ensued. 

Finally, the Count discovered that he could cause the 
divining rod to move when he walked over a non-exciting 
surface — as, for instance, in his own chamber — by various 
processes. Of these the most interesting consisted in 
touching the point of the instrument with either pole of 
a magnetic needle. The instrument shortly began to 
move, ascending or descending, according as the north- 
ward or southward pole of the needle had been applied to it. 

It is unnecessary to add that these, and all M. de 
Tristan's experiments, were repeated by him many times. 
The results of those which I have narrated were con- 
stant. 

Let me now attempt to realize something out of the 
preceding statements. 

1. It is shown, by the testimony adduced, that whereas 
in the hands of most persons the divining rod remains 
motionless, in the hands of some it moves promptly and 
briskly w T hen the requisite conditions are observed. 

2. It is no less certain that the motion of the divining 
rod has appeared, to various intelligent and honest per- 
sons, who have succeeded in producing it, to be entirely 
spontaneous ; or that the said persons were not conscious 
of having excited or promoted the motion by the slightest 
help of their own. 

3. It appears that in the ordinary use of the divining 
rod by competent persons, its motion only manifests itself 
in certain localities. 



THE DIVINING ROD. 19 

4. It being assumed that the operator does not, how- 
ever unconsciously, by the muscular action of his hands 
and wrists produce the motion of the divining rod, the 
likeliest way of accounting for the phenomenon is to sup- 
pose that the divining rod may become the conductor of 
some fluid or force, emanating from or disturbed in the 
body by a terrestrial agency. 

But here a difficulty arises: How can it happen that 
the hypothetical force makes so long and round-about 
a course ? Why, communicated to the body through the 
legs, does not the supposed fluid complete a circuit at 
once in the lower part of the trunk? 

Such, at all events, would be the course an electric cur- 
rent so circumstanced would take. 

The difficulty raised admits of being removed by aid 
derived from a novel and unexpected source. I allude 
to the discovery, by Von Reichenbach, of a new force or 
principle in the physical world, which, whether or not it 
is identical with that which gives motion to the divining 
rod, exhibits, at all events, the very property which the 
hypothetical principle should possess to explain the phe- 
nomena which we have been considering. 

No attempts have indeed been made to identify the 
two as one; and my conjecture that they may prove so, 
should it even appear plausible, is so vague, that I should 
have contented myself with referring to Von Reichen- 
bach's new principle as to an established truth, and have 
introduced no account of it into this Letter, had I not a 
second motive for insuring your cognisance of the curious 
facts which the Viennese philosopher has brought to 
light. It is less with the view of furnishing a leg to the 
theory of the divining rod, than in order to provide the 
means of elucidating more interesting problems, that I 



20 THE DIVINING ROD. 

now proceed briefly to sketch the leading experiments 
made by Von Reichenbach, and their results. 

Objections have been taken against these experiments, 
on the ground that their effects are purely subjective; 
that the results must be received on the testimony of the 
party employed; and that the best parties for the pur- 
pose are persons whose natural sensibility is exalted by 
disorder of the nerves; a class of persons always sus- 
pected of exaggeration, and even, and in part with jus- 
tice, of a tendency to trickery and deception. But this 
was well known to Von Reichenbach, who appears to have 
taken every precaution necessary to secure his observa- 
tions against error. And when I add, that many of the 
results which he obtained upon the most sensitive and 
the highly nervous, were likewise manifested in persons 
of established character and in good health, and that the 
fidelity of the author and of his researches is authenti- 
cated by the publication of the latter in Woehler and 
Liebig's Chemical Annals, (Supplement to volume 53, 
Heidelberg, 1845,) I think you will not withhold from 
them complete reliance. 

In general, persons in health and of a strong constitu- 
tion are insensible to the influence of Von Reichenbach's 
new force. But all persons, the tone of whose health has 
been lowered by their mode of life — men of sedentary 
habits, clerks, and the like, and women who employ their 
whole time in needlework, whose pale complexions show 
the relaxed and therefore irritable state of their frames 
— all such, or nearly all — evince more or less suscepti- 
bility to the influence I am about to describe. 

Von Reichenbach found that persons of the latter class, 
when slow passes are made with the poles of a strong 
magnet moved parallel to the surface — down the back, 



THE DIVINING ROD. 21 

for instance, or down the limbs, and only distant enough 
just not to touch the clothes — feel sensations rather un- 
pleasant than otherwise, as of a light draft of air blown 
upon them in the path of the magnet. 

In the progress of his researches, Von Eeichenbach 
found that the more sensitive among his subjects could 
detect the presence of his new agent by another sense. 
In the dark they saw dim flames of light issuing and 
waving from the poles of the magnet. The experiments 
suggested by this discovery afford the most satisfactory 
proofs of the reality of the phenomena. They were the 
following : — A horse-shoe magnet having been adjusted 
upon a table, with the poles directed upwards, the sensi- 
tive subject saw, at the distance of ten feet, the appear- 
ance of flames issuing from it. The armature of the 
magnet — a bar of soft iron — was then applied. Upon 
this the flames disappeared. They reappeared, she said, 
as often as the armature was removed from the magnet. 

A similar experiment was made with a yet more sen- 
sitive subject. This person saw, in the first instance, 
flames as the first had done ; but when the armature of 
the magnet was applied, the flames did not disappear : she 
saw flames still : only they were fainter, and their dis- 
position was different. They seemed now to issue from 
every part of the surface of the magnet equally. 

It is hardly necessary to add, that these experiments 
were made in a well-darkened room, and that none of 
the bystanders could discern what the sensitive subjects 
saw. 

Then the following experiment was made : — A power- 
ful lens was so placed as that it should concentrate the 
light of the flames (if real light they were) upon a point 
of the wall of the room. The patient at once saw the 
3 



22 THE DIVINING ROD. 

light upon the wall at the right place; and when the in- 
clination of the lens was shifted, so as to throw the focus 
in succession on different points, the sensitive observer 
never failed in pointing out the right spot. 

To his new force, which Von Reichenbach had now 
found to emanate likewise from the poles of crystals and 
the wires of the voltaic pile, he gave the arbitrary but 
convenient name of Od, or the Od force. 

His next step was to ascertain the existence of a dif- 
ference among the sensations produced by Od. Some- 
times the current of air was described as warm, sometimes 
as cool. He found this difference to depend upon the 
following cause : Whenever the northward pole of a 
magnet, or one definite pole of a large crystal, or the 
negative wire of a voltaic battery, is employed in the ex- 
periment, the sensation produced is that of a draft of 
cool air. On the contrary, the southward pole of the 
magnet, the opposite pole of the crystal, the positive 
voltaic wire, excite the sensation of a draft of warm air. 

So the new force appeared to be a polar force, and 
Von Reichenbach called the first series of the above de- 
scribed manifestations Od-negative effects, the second 
Od-positive effects. 

From among his numerous experiments towards estab- 
lishing the polarity of Od, I select the following : — One 
of the most sensitive of his subjects held, at his desire, a 
piece of copper wire, by the middle with the right hand 
— by one end with the left. Then Von Reichenbach 
touched the free end of the wire with one pole of a large 
crystal, in order to charge it with Od. The patient im- 
mediately felt a sensation in the right hand, which dis- 
appeared as quickly, to be felt by the left hand instead, 
at the further end of the piece of wire. She then was 



THE DIVINING ROD. 23 

bidden to take hold of the wire with both her hands at 
the middle, and then to slide them away from each other 
to the opposite ends: she observed, on doing so, that 
sensations were produced which were strong and decided 
when her hands held the two ends of the wire, and dimi- 
nished in intensity in proportion as the hands were nearer 
its middle. 

Von Reichenbach next came upon the observation that 
the human hand gives out the Od force ; and that the 
right hand displays the characters of negative Od, the 
left those of positive Od. The more sensitive subjects 
recognised, in the dark, the appearance of dim flames 
proceeding from the tips of his fingers ; and all felt the 
corresponding sensations of drafts of cool or of warm air. 
Subsequently the whole body was found to share the pro- 
perties of the hands; the entire right side to manifest 
negative Od, the entire left side positive Od. 

So, in reference to this new force, the human body 
exhibits a transverse polarity; the condition is thus 
realized which is required to belong to the hypothetical 
force through which the divining rod might be supposed 
to move. If any terrestrial influence were capable of 
disturbing the Od force in the body, however it might 
affect its intensity, a current or circuit could only be 
established through the arms and hands ; unless, indeed, 
some extraordinary means were taken, such as employ- 
ing an artificial conductor, arched half round the body, 
to connect the two sides. 

The sensations which attend the establishment of a 
current of Od and interferences with it, in sensitive sub- 
jects, are exemplified in the following observations : — 

A bar magnet was laid on the palm of the left hand of 
one of the most sensitive subjects, with its southward pole 



24 THE DIVINING ROD. 

resting on the end of her middle finger, the northward 
pole on the fore-arm above the wrist. It thus corre- 
sponded with the natural polar arrangement of the Od 
force in the patient's hand and arm. Accordingly, no 
sensation was excited. But when the position of the 
magnet was reversed, and the northward pole lay oa the 
end of the middle finger of the left hand, an uneasy sense 
of an inward conflict arose in the hand and wrist, which 
disappeared when the magnet was removed or its original 
direction restored. On laying the magnet reversed on 
the fore-arm, the sense of an inward struggle returned, 
which was heightened on joining the hands and estab- 
lishing a circuit. 

When the patient completed the circuit in another 
way — namely, by holding a bar magnet by the ends, if 
the latter were disposed normally, (that is, if the north- 
ward pole was held in the left hand, the southward pole 
in the right,) a lively consciousness of some inward action 
ensued. A normal circulation of Od was in progress. 
When the direction of the magnet was reversed, the 
phenomenon mentioned in the last paragraph recurred. 
The patient experienced a high degree of uneasiness, a 
feeling as of an inward struggle extending itself to the 
chest, with a sense of whirling round, and confusion in 
the head. These symptoms disappeared immediately 
upon her letting go the magnet. 

Similar results ensued when Von Reichenbach substi- 
tuted himself for the magnet. When he took Miss Maix's 
hands in his normally — that is to say, her left in his 
right, her right in his left — she felt a circulation moving 
up the right arm through the chest down the left arm, 
attended with a sense of giddiness. When he changed 
hands, the disagreeableness of the sensation was suddenly 



THE DIVINING HOD. 25 

heightened, the sense of inward conflict arose, attended 
with a sort of undulation up and down the arms, and 
through the chest, which quickly became intolerable. 
• A singular but consistent difference in the result ensued 
when Von Reichenbach repeated the last two experiments 
upon Herr Schuh. Herr Schuh was a strong man, thirty- 
years of age, in full health, but highly impressible by 
Od. When Von Reichenbach took his two hands in his 
own normally, Herr Schuh felt the normal establishment 
of the Od current in his arms and chest. In a few 
seconds headache and vertigo ensued, and the experiment 
was too disagreeable to be prolonged. But when Von 
Reichenbach took his hands abnormally, no sensible effect 
ensued. Being equally strong with Von Reichenbach, 
Herr Schuh's frame repelled the counter-current, which 
the latter arrangement tended to throw into him. In 
the first or normal arrangement, the Od current had met 
with no resistance, but had simply gone its natural course. 
The distress occurred from, its being felt through Herr 
Schuh's accidental sensitiveness to Od; of the freaks of 
which in their systems people in general are unconscious. 
I have concluded my case in favour of the pretensions 
of the divining rod. It seems to me, at all events, strong 
enough to justify any one who has leisure, in cutting a 
hazel-fork, and walking about with it in suitable places, 
holding it in the manner described. I doubt, however, 
whether I should recommend a friend to make the expe- 
riment. If, by good luck, the divining rod should refuse 
to move in his hands, he might accuse himself of credu- 
lity, and feel silly, and hope nobody had seen him, for 
the rest of the day. If, unfortunately, the first trial 
should succe.ed, and he should be led to pursue the in- 
quiry, the consequences would be more serious: his pro- 

3* 



26 THE DIVINING ROD. 

bable fate would be to fall at once several degrees in the 
estimation of his friends, and to pass with the world, all 
the rest of his life, for a crotchety person of weak intel- 
lects. • 

As for the divining rod itself, if my argument prove 
sound, it will be a credit to the family of superstitions ; 
for without any reduction, or clipping, or trimming, it 
may at once assume the rank of a new truth. But, alas ! 
the trials which await it in that character ! — what an 
ordeal is before it ! A new truth has to encounter three 
normal stages of opposition. In the first, it is denounced 
as an imposture ; in the second — that is, when it is be- 
ginning to force itself into notice — it is cursorily exa- 
mined, and plausibly explained away; in the third, or 
cut bono stage, it is decried as useless, and hostile to re- 
ligion. And when it is fully admitted, it passes only 
under a protest that it has been perfectly known for ages 
— a proceeding intended to make the new truth ashamed 
of itself, and wish it had never been born. 

I congratulate the sea-serpent on having arrived at 
the second stage of belief. Since Professor Owen (no 
disrespect to his genuine ability and eminent knowledge) 
has explained it into a sea-elephant, its chance of being 
itself is much improved; and as it will skip the third 
stage — for who will venture to question the good of a 
sea-serpent? — it is liable now any morning "to wake and 
find itself famous," and to be received even at Lincoln's 
Inn Fields, where its remains may commemoratively be 
ticketed the Ex-Great-Seal. 

Postscript, (1850.) — It may save trouble to some 
future experimenter to narrate my own exploits with 
the divining rod. 

In the spring of 1847, being then at Weilbach in Nas- 



THE DIVINING ROD. 27 

sail, a region teeming with underground sources of water, 
I requested the son of the proprietor of the bathing esta- 
blishment — a tall, thin, pale, white-haired youth, by name 
Edward Seebold — to walk in my presence up and down 
a promising spot of ground, holding a divining fork of 
hazel, with the accessories recommended by M. de Tristan 
to beginners — that is to say, he held in his right hand 
three pieces of silver, besides one handle of the rod, 
while the handle which he held in his left hand was co- 
vered with a thin silk. 

The lad had not made five steps when the point of the 
divining fork began to ascend. He laughed with asto- 
nishment at the event, which was totally unexpected by 
him ; and he said that he experienced a tickling or thrill- 
ing sensation in his hands. He continued to walk up 
and down before me. The fork had soon described a 
complete circle ; then it described another; and so it con- 
tinued to do as long as he walked thus, and as often as, 
after stopping, he resumed his walk. The experiment 
was repeated by him in my presence, with like success, 
several times during the ensuing month. Then the lad 
fell into ill health, and I rarely saw him. However, one 
day I sent for him, and begged him to do me the favour 
of making another trial with the divining fork. He did 
so, but the instrument moved slowly and sluggishly ; and 
when, having completed a semicircle, it pointed back- 
wards towards the pit of his stomach, it stopped, and 
would go no farther. At the same time the lad said he 
felt an uneasy sensation, which quickly increased to pain, 
at the pit of the stomach, and he became alarmed, when 
I bade him quit hold of one handle of the divining rod, 
and the pain ceased. Ten minutes afterwards I induced 
him to make another trial; the results were the same. 
A few days later, when the lad seemed still more out of 



28 THE DIVINING ROD. 

health, I induced him to repeat the experiment. Now, 
however, the divining fork would not move at all. 

I entertain little doubt that the above performances 
of Edward Seebold were genuine. I thought the same 
of the performances of three English gentlemen, and of 
a German, in whose hands, however, the divining rod 
never moved through an entire circle. In the hands of 
one of them its motion was retrograde, or abnormal: that 
is to say, it began by descending. 

But I met with other cases, which were less satisfac- 
tory, though not uninstructive. I should observe that, 
in the hands of several who tried to use it in my pre- 
sence, the divining fork would not move an inch. But 
there were two younger brothers of Edward Seebold, and 
a bath-maid, and my own man, in whose hands the rod 
played new pranks. When these parties walked forwards, 
the instrument ascended, or moved normally ; but when, 
by my desire, they walked backwards, the instrument 
immediately went the other way. I should observe that, 
in the hands of Edward Seebold, the instrument moved 
in the same direction whether he walked forwards or 
backwards ; and I have mentioned that at first it de- 
scribed in his hands a complete circle. But with the 
four parties I have just been speaking of, the motion of 
the fork was always limited in extent. When it moved 
normally at starting, it stopped after describing an arc 
of about 225°; in the same way, when it moved abnor- 
mally at starting, it would stop after describing an arc 
of about 135°; that is to say, there was one spot the 
same for the two cases, beyond which it could not get. 
Then I found that, in the hands of my man, the divining 
rod would move even when he was standing still, although 
with a less lively action ; still it stopped as before, nearly 
at the same point. Sometimes it ascended, sometimes 



THE DIVINING ROD. 29 

descended. Then I tried some experiments, touching 
the point with a magnetic needle. I found, in the course 
of them, that when my man knew which way I expected 
the fork to move, it invariably answered my expectations ; 
but when I had the man blindfolded, the results were un- 
certain and contradictory. The end of all this was, that 
I became certain that several of those in whose hands 
the divining rod moves, set it in motion and direct its 
motion by the pressure of their fingers, and by carrying 
their hands nearer to, or farther apart. In walking 
forwards, the hands are unconsciously borne towards 
each other : in walking backwards, the reverse is the 
case. 

Therefore, I recommend no one to prosecute these ex- 
periments unless he can execute them himself, and unless 
the divining rod describes a complete circle in his hands; 
and even then he should be on his guard against self-de- 
ception. 

Postscript II. — I am now (May, 1851) again residing 
at the bathing establishment of Weilbach, near Mayence ; 
and it was with some interest and curiosity that the other 
day I requested Mr. Edward Seebold, now a well-grown 
young man, in full health, to try his hand again with the 
divining-rod. He readily assented to my request ; and 
he this time knew exactly what result I expected. But 
the experiment entirely failed. The point of the divi- 
ning rod rose, as he walked, not more than two or three 
inches ; but this it does with every one who presses the 
two handles towards each other during the experiment. 
Afterwards the implement remained perfectly stationary. 
I think I am not at liberty to withhold this result from 
the reader, whom it may lead to question, though it can- 
not induce myself to doubt, the genuineness of the former 
performances of Mr. E. S. 



30 VAMPYRISM. 



LETTER II. 

Vampyrism. — Tale exemplifying the superstition — The Vampyr state 
of the body in the grave — Various instances of death-trance — The 
risk of premature interment considered — The Vampyr visit. 

In acknowledging my former letter, you express an 
eager desire to learn, as you phrase it, "all about Vam- 
pyrs, if there ever were such things/ ' I will not delay 
satisfying your curiosity, although by so doing I inter- 
rupt the logical order of my communications. It is, per- 
haps, all the better. The proper place of this subject 
falls in the midst of a philosophical disquisition ; and it 
would have been a pity not to present it to you in its 
pristine colouring. But how came your late tutor, Mr. 
H., to leave you in ignorance upon a point on which, in 
my time, schoolboys much your juniors entertained de- 
cided opinions? 

Were there ever such things as Vampyrs ? Tantamne 
rem tarn neglig enter ! I turn to the learned pages of 
Horst for a luminous and precise definition of the de- 
structive and mysterious beings whose existence you have 
ventured to consider problematical. 

"A Vampyr is a dead body which continues to live in 
the grave; which it leaves, however, by night, for the 
purpose of sucking the blood of the living, whereby it is 
nourished and preserved in good condition, instead of 
being decomposed like other dead bodies. " 

Upon my word, you really deserve, since Mr. George 
Combe has clearly shown, in his admirable work on the 
Constitution of Man, and its adaptation to the surrounding 
world, that ignorance is a statutable crime before nature, 



VAMPYRISM. 31 

and punished by the laws of Providence — you deserve, I 
say, unless you contrive to make Mr. II. your substitute, 
-which I think would be just, yourself to be the subject 
of the nocturnal visit of a Vampyr. Your skepticism 
will abate pretty considerably when you see him stealthily 
entering your room, yet are powerless under the fascina- 
tion of his fixed and leaden eye — when you are conscious, 
as you lie motionless with terror, of his nearer and 
nearer approach — w T hen you feel his face, fresh with the 
smell of the grave, bent over your throat, while his keen 
teeth make a fine incision in your jugular, preparatory 
to his commencing his plain but nutritive repast. 

You w^ould look a little paler the next morning, but 
that would be all for the moment; for Fischer informs 
us that the bite of a Vampyr leaves in general no mark 
upon the person. But he fearfully adds, "it (the bite) 
is nevertheless speedily fatal, " unless the bitten person 
protect himself by eating some of the earth from the 
grave of the Vampyr, and smearing himself with his 
blood. Unfortunately, indeed, these measures are sel- 
dom, if ever, of more than temporary use. Fischer adds, 
"if through these precautions the life of the victim be 
prolonged for a period, sooner or later he ends with be- 
coming a Vampyr himself; that is to say, he dies and is 
buried, but continues to lead a Vampyr life in the grave, 
nourishing himself by infecting others, and promiscuously 
propagating Vampyrism." 

This is no romancer's dream. It is a succinct account 
of a superstition which to this day services in the east of • 
Europe, where little more than a century ago it was 
frightfully prevalent. At that period Vampyrism spread 
like a pestilence through Servia and Wallachia, causing 
numerous deaths, and disturbing all the land with fear of 



32 VAMPYRISM. 

the mysterious visitation, against which no one felt him- 
self secure. 

Here is something like a good, solid, practical popular 
delusion. Do I believe it? To be sure I do. The facts 
are matter of history : the people died like rotted sheep ; 
and the cause and method of their dying was, in their 
belief, what has just been stated. You suppose, then, 
they died frightened out of their lives, as men have died 
whose pardon has been proclaimed when their necks 
were already on the block, of the belief that they were 
going to die ? Well, if that were all, the subject would 
still be worth examining. But there is more in it than 
that, as the following o'er true tale will convince you, 
the essential points of which are authenticated by docu- 
mentary evidence. 

In the spring of 1727, there returned from the Levant 
to the village of Meduegna, near Belgrade, one Arnod 
Paole, who, in a few years of military service and varied 
adventure, had amassed enough to purchase a cottage 
and an acre or two of land in his native place, where he 
gave out that he meant to pass the remainder of his days. 
He kept his word. Arnod had yet scarcely reached the 
prime of manhood ; and though he must have encountered 
the rough as well as the smooth of life, and have mingled 
with many a wild and reckless companion, yet his natu- 
rally good disposition and honest principles had preserved 
him unscathed in the scenes he had passed through. At 
all events, such were the thoughts expressed by his 
neighbours as they discussed his return and settlement 
among them in the Stube of the village Hof. Nor did 
the frank and open countenance of Arnod, his obliging 
habits and steady conduct, argue their judgment incor- 
rect. Nevertheless, there was something occasionally 



VAMPYRISM. 33 

noticeable in his ways — a look and tone that betrayed 
inward disquiet. Often would he refuse to join his 
friends, or on some sudden plea abruptly quit their so- 
ciety. And he still more unaccountably, and as it seemed 
sj^stematically, avoided meeting his pretty neighbour 
Nina, whose father occupied the next tenement to his 
own. At the age of seventeen, Nina was as charming a 
picture of youth, cheerfulness, innocence, and confidence, 
as you could have seen in all the world. You could not 
look into her limpid eyes, which steadily returned your 
gaze, without seeing to the bottom of the pure and trans- 
parent spring of her thoughts. Why, then, did Arnod 
shrink from meeting her? He was young; had a little 
property; had health and industry; and he had told his 
friends he had formed no ties in other lands. Why, then, 
did he avoid the fascination of the pretty Nina, who 
seemed a being made to chase from any brow the clouds 
of gathering care ? But he did so ; yet less and less re- 
solutely, for he felt the charm of her presence. Who 
could have done otherwise? And how could he long 
resist — he didn't — the impulse of his fondness for the 
innocent girl who often sought to cheer his fits of de- 
pression ? 

And they were to be united — were betrothed; yet still 
an anxious gloom would fitfully overcast his countenance, 
even in the sunshine of those hours. 

"What is it, dear Arnod, that makes you sad? It 
cannot be on my account, I know, for you were sad be- 
fore you ever noticed me; and that, I think," (and you 
should have seen the deepening rose upon her cheeks,) 
"surely first made me notice you." 

"Nina," he answered, "I have done, I fear, a great 
4 



84 VAMPYRISM. 

wrong in trying to gain your affections. Nina, I have a 
fixed impression that I shall not live ; yet, knowing this, 
I have selfishly made my existence necessary to your 
happiness." 

" How strangely you talk, dear Arnod ! Who in the 
village is stronger and healthier than you? You feared 
no danger when you were a soldier. What danger do 
you fear as a villager of Meduegna?" 

"It haunts me, Nina." 

"But, Arnod, you were sad before you thought of me. 
Did you then fear to die?" 

"Ah, Nina, it is something worse than death." And 
his vigorous frame shook with agony. 

"Arnod, I conjure you, tell me." 

" It was in Cossova this fate befell me. Here you 
have hitherto escaped the terrible scourge. But there 
they died, and the dead visited the living. I experienced 
the first frightful visitation, and I fled; but not till I had 
sought his grave, and exacted the dread expiation from 
the Vampyr." 

Nina's blood ran cold. She stood horror-stricken. 
But her young heart soon mastered her first despair. 
With a touching voice she spoke — 

"Fear not, dear Arnod; fear not now. I will be 
your shield, or I will die with you!" 

And she encircled his neck with her gentle arms, and 
returning hope shone, Iris-like, amid her falling tears. 
Afterwards they found a reasonable ground for banish- 
ing or allaying their apprehension in the length of time 
which had elapsed since Arnod left Cossova, during 
which no fearful visitant had again approached him; and 
they fondly trusted that gave them security. 



VAMPYRISM. 35 

It is a strange world. The ills we fear are commonly 
not those which overwhelm us. The blows that reach us 
are for the most part unforeseen. One day, about a 
week after this conversation, Arnod missed his footing 
when on the top of a loaded hay-wagon, and fell from 
it to the ground. He was picked up insensible, and car- 
ried home, where, after lingering a short time, he died. 
His interment, as usual, followed immediately. His fate 
was sad and premature. But what pencil could paint 
Nina's grief! 

Twenty or thirty days after his decease, says the per- 
fectly authenticated report of these transactions, several 
of the neighbourhood complained that they were haunted 
by the deceased Arnod; and, what was more to the pur- 
pose, four of them died. The evil, looked at skeptically, 
was bad enough, but aggravated by the suggestions of 
superstition, it spread a panic through the whole district. 
To allay the popular terror, and if possible to get at the 
root of the evil, a determination was come to publicly to 
disinter the body of Arnod, with the view of ascertaining 
whether he really was a Vampyr, and, in that event, of 
treating him conformably. The day fixed for this pro- 
ceeding was the fortieth after his burial. 

It was on a gray morning in early August that the 
commission visited the quiet cemetery of Meduegna, which, 
surrounded with a wall of unhewn stone, lies sheltered 
by the mountain that, rising in undulating green slopes, 
irregularly planted with fruit trees, ends Jn^an abrupt 
cra ggy ridge? feathered with underwood. The graves 
were, for the most part, neatly kept, with borders of box, 
or something like it, and flowers between ; and at the 
head of most a small wooden cross, painted black, bear- 



36 VAMPYRISM. 

ing the name of the tenant. Here and there a stone had 
been raised. One of considerable height, a single nar- 
row slab, ornamented with grotesque Gothic carvings, 
dominated over the rest. Near this lay the grave of 
Arnod Paole, towards which the party moved. The work 
of throwing out the earth was begun by the gray, crooked 
old sexton, who lived in the Leichenhaus, beyond the 
great crucifix. He seemed unconcerned enough ; no 
Vampyr would think of extracting a supper out of him. 
Nearest the grave stood two military surgeons, or feld- 
scherers, from Belgrade, and a drummer-boy, who held 
their case of instruments. The boy looked on with keen 
interest; and when the coffin was exposed and rather 
roughly drawn out of the grave, his pale face and bright 
intent eye showed how the scene moved him. The sexton 
lifted the lid of the coffin : the body had become inclined 
to one side. Then turning it straight, "Ha! ha!" said 
he, pointing to fresh blood upon the lips — "Ha! ha! 
What! Your mouth not wiped since last night's work?" 
The spectators shuddered; the drummer-boy sank for- 
ward, fainting, and upset the instrument-case, scattering 
its contents ; the senior surgeon, infected with the horror 
of the scene, repressed a hasty exclamation, and simply 
crossed himself. They threw water on the drummer- 
boy, and he recovered, but would not leave the spot. 
Then they inspected the body of Arnod. It looked as if 
it had not been dead a day. On handling it, the scarf- 
skin came off, but below were new shin and new nails! 
How could they have come there but from its foul feed- 
ing! The case was clear enough; there lay before them 
the thing they dreaded — the Vampyr. So, without more 
ado, they simply drove a stake through poor Arnod's 



VAMPYRISM. 37 

chest, whereupon a quantity of blood gushed forth, and 
the corpse uttered an audible groan. "Murder! oh, 
murder !" shrieked the drummer-boy, as he rushed wildly, 
with convulsed gestures, from the cemetery. 

The drummer-boy was not far from the mark. But, 
quitting the romancing vein, which had led me to try 
and restore the original colours of the picture, let me con- 
fine myself, in describing the rest of the scene and what 
followed, to the words of my authority. 

The body of Arnod was then burnt to ashes, which 
were returned to the grave. The authorities further 
staked and burnt the bodies of the four others which were 
supposed to have been infected by Arnod. No mention 
is made of the state in which they were found. The 
adoption of these decisive measures failed, however, en- 
tirely to extinguish the evil, which continued still to hang 
about the village. About five years afterwards it had 
again become very rife, and many died through it; 
whereupon the authorities determined to make another 
and a complete clearance of the Vampyrs in the ceme- 
tery, and with that object they had all the graves, to 
which present suspicion attached, opened, and their con- 
tents officially anatomized, of which procedure the fol- 
lowing is the medical report, here and there abridged 
only:— 

1. A woman of the name of Stana, twenty years of 
age, who had died three months before of a three days' 
illness following her confinement. She had before her 
death avowed that she had anointed herself with the blood 
of a Vampyr, to liberate herself from his persecution. 
Nevertheless, she, as well as her infant, whose body 
through careless interment had been half eaten by the 

4* 



88 VAMPYRISM. 

dogs, had died. Her body was entirely free from de- 
composition. On opening it, the chest was found full of 
recently effused blood, and the bowels had exactly the 
appearances of sound health. The skin and nails of her 
hands and feet were loose and came off, but underneath 
lay new skin and nails. 

2. A woman of the name of Miliza, who had died at 
the end of a three months' illness. The body had been 
buried ninety and odd days. In the chest was liquid 
blood. The viscera were as in the former instance. 
The body was declared by a heyduk, who recognised it, 
to be in better condition, and fatter, than it had been in 
the woman's legitimate lifetime. 

3. The body of a child eight years old, that had like- 
wise been buried ninety days: it was in the Vampyr 
condition. 

4. The son of a heyduk named Milloc, sixteen years 
old. The body had lain in the grave nine weeks. He 
had died after three days' indisposition, and was in the 
condition of a Vampyr. 

5. Joachim, likewise son of a heyduk, seventeen years 
old. He had died after three days' illness; had been 
buried eight weeks and some days; was found in the • 
Vampyr state. 

6. A woman of the name of Rusha, who had died of 
an illness of ten days' duration, and had been six weeks 
buried, in whom likewise fresh blood was found in the 
chest. 

(The reader will understand, that to see blood in the 
chest, it is first necessary to cut the chest open.) 

7. The body of a girl of ten years of age, who had 
died two months before. It was likewise in the Vampyr 
state, perfectly undecomposed, with blood in the chest. 



VAMPYRISM. 39 

8. The body of the wife of one Hadnuck, buried seven 
weeks before; and that of her infant, eight weeks old, 
buried only twenty-one days. They were both in a state 
of decomposition, though buried in the same ground, and 
closely adjoining the others. 

9. A servant, by name Rhade, twenty-three years of 
age ; he had died after an illness of three months' du- 
ration, and the body had been buried five weeks. It was 
in a state of decomposition. 

10. The body of the heyduk Stanco, sixty years of age, 
who had died six weeks previously. There was much 
blood and other fluid in the chest and abdomen, and the 
body was in the Vampyr condition. 

11. Millac, a heyduk, twenty-five years old. The body 
had been in the earth six weeks. It was perfectly in the 
Vampyr condition. 

12. Stanjoika, the wife of a heyduk, twenty years 
old ; had died after an illness of three days, and had been 
buried eighteen. The countenance was florid. There 
was blood in the chest and in the heart. The viscera 
were perfectly sound ; the skin remarkably fresh. 

The document which gives the above particulars is 
signed by three regimental surgeons, and formally coun- 
tersigned by a lieutenant-colonel and sub-lieutenant. It 
bears the date of "June 7, 1732, Meduegna near Bel- 
grade." No doubt can be entertained of its authenticity, 
or of its general fidelity; the less that it does not stand 
alone, but is supported by a mass of evidence to the same 
effect. It appears to establish, beyond question, that 
where the fear of Vampyrism prevails, and there occur 
several deaths, in the popular belief connected with it, 
the bodies, when disinterred weeks after burial, present 



40 VAMPYRISM. 

the appearance of corpses from which life has only re- 
cently departed. 

What inference shall we draw from this fact? — that 
Vampyrism is true in the popular sense? — and that these 
fresh-looking and well-conditioned corpses had some mys- 
terious source of preternatural nourishment ? That would 
be to adopt, not to solve the superstition. Let us content 
ourselves with a notion not so monstrous, but still start- 
ling enough : that the bodies, which were found in the 
so-called Vampyr state, instead of being in a new or mys- 
tical condition, were simply alive in the common way, 
or had been so for some time subsequent to their inter- 
ment ; that, in short, they were the bodies of persons who 
had been buried alive, and whose life, where it yet lin- 
gered, was finally extinguished through the ignorance 
and barbarity of those who disinterred them. In the 
following sketch of a similar scene to that above described, 
the correctness of this inference comes out with terrific 
force. 

Erasmus Francisci, in his remarks upon the description 
of the Dukedom of Krain by Valvasor, speaks of a man 
of the name of Grando, in the district of Kring, who died, 
was buried, and became a Vampyr, and as such was ex- 
humed for the purpose of having a stake thrust through 
him. 

"When they opened his grave, after he had been long 
buried, his face was found with a colour, and his features 
made natural sorts of movements, as if the dead man 
smiled. He even opened his mouth as if he would inhale 
fresh air. They held the crucifix before him, and called 
in a loud voice, ' See, this is Jesus Christ who redeemed 
your soul from hell, and died for you.' After the sound 



VAMPYRISM. 41 

\ 

had acted on his organs of hearing, and he had connect- 
ed perhaps some ideas with it, tears began to flow from 
the dead man's eyes. Finally, when after a short prayer 
for his poor soul, they proceeded to hack off his head, the 
corpse uttered a screech, and turned and rolled just as if 
it had been alive — and the grave was full of blood." 

We have thus succeeded in interpreting one of the 
unknown terms in the Vampyr theorem. The suspicious 
character, who had some dark way of nourishing himself 
in the grave, turns out to be an unfortunate gentleman 
(or lady) whom his friends had buried under a mistake 
while he was still alive, and who, if they afterwards mer- 
cifully let him alone, died sooner or later either naturally 
or of the premature interment — in either case, it is to 
be hoped, with no interval of restored consciousness. 
The state which thus passed for death and led to such 
fatal consequences, apart from superstition, deserves our 
serious consideration ; for, although of very rare, it is of 
continual occurrence, and society is not sufficiently on its 
guard against a contingency so dreadful when overlooked. 
When the nurse or the doctor has announced that all is 
over — that the valued friend or relative has breathed his 
last — no doubt crosses any one's mind of the reality of 
the sad event. Disease is now so well understood — every 
step in its march laid down and foreseen — the approach 
of danger accurately estimated — the liability of the pa- 
tient, according to his powers of resisting it, to succumb 
earlier or to hold out longer — all is theoretically so clear 
that a wholesome suspicion of error in the verdict of the 
attendants seldom suggests itself. The evil I am consi- 
dering ought not, however, to be attributed to redundance 
of knowledge: it arises from its partial lack — from a too 



42 VAMPYRISM. 

general neglect of one very important section in patho- 
logical science. The laity, if not the doctors too, con- 
stantly lose sight of the fact, that there exists an alter- 
native to the fatal event of ordinary disease; that a pa- 
tient is liable at any period of illness to deviate, or, as 
it were, to slide off, from the customary line of disease 
into another and a deceptive route — instead of death, to 
encounter apparent death. 

The Germans express this condition of the living body 
by the term " scheintod," which signifies exactly apparent 
death; and it is perhaps a better term than our English 
equivalent, "suspended animation." But both these ex- 
pressions are generic terms, and a specific term is still 
wanted to denote the present class of instances. To 
meet this exigency, I propose, for reasons which will 
afterwards appear, to employ the term " death-trance' ' 
to designate the cases we are investigating. 

Death-trance is, then, one of the forms of suspended 
animation :' there are several others. After incomplete 
poisoning, after suffocation in either of its various ways, 
after exposure to cold in infants newly born, a state is 
occasionally met with, of which (however each may still 
differ from the rest) the common feature is an apparent 
suspension of the vital actions. But all of these so-cited 
instances agree in, another important respect, which 
second inter-agreement separates them as a class from 
death-trance. They represent, each and all, a period of 
conflict between the effects of certain deleterious impres- 
sions and the vital principle, the latter struggling against 
the weight and force of the former. Such is not the 
case in death-trance. 

Death-trance is a positive status — a period of repose 



VAMPYRISM. 43 

— the duration of which is sometimes definite and prede- 
termined, though unknown. Thus the patient, the term 
of the death-trance having expired, occasionally suddenly 
wakes, entirely and at once restored. Oftener, however, 
the machinery which has been stopped seems to require 
to be jogged — then it goes on again. 

The basis of death-trance is suspension of the action of 
the heart, and of the breathing, and of voluntary motion ; 
generally likewise feeling and intelligence, and the vege- 
tative changes in the body, are suspended. With these 
phenomena is joined loss of external warmth; so that the 
usual evidence of life is gone. But there have occurred 
varieties of this condition, in which occasional slight 
manifestations of one or other of the vital actions have 
been observed. 

Death-trance may occur as a primary affection, sud- 
denly or gradually. The diseases the course of w T hich it 
is liable, as it were, to bifurcate, or to graft itself upon, 
are first and principally all disorders of the nervous 
system. But in any form of disease, when the body is 
brought to a certain degree of debility, death-trance 
may supervene. Age and sex have to do with its occur- 
rence; which is more frequent in the young than in the 
old, in women than in men — differences evidently con- 
nected with greater irritability of the nervous system. 
Accordingly, women in labour are among the most liable 
to death-trance, and it is from such a case that I will 
give a first instance of the affection as portrayed by a 
medical witness. {Journal des Savans, 1749.) 

M. Rigaudeaux, surgeon to the military hospital, and 
licensed accoucher at Douai, was sent for on the 8th of 
September, 1745, to attend the wife of Francis Dumont, 



44 VAMPYRISM. 

residing two leagues from the town. He was late in 
getting there ; it was half-past eight, A. M. — too late, it 
seemed; the patient was declared to have died at six 
o'clock, after eighteen hours of ineffectual labour-pains. 
M. Rigaudeaux inspected the body; there was no pulse 
or breath; the mouth was full of froth, the abdomen 
tumid. He brought away the infant, which he committed 
to the care of the nurses, who, after trying to reanimate 
it for three hours, gave up the attempt, and prepared to 
lay it out, when it opened its mouth. They then gave it 
wine, and it was speedily recovered. M. Rigaudeaux, 
who returned to the house as this occurred, inspected 
again the body of the mother. (It had been already 
nailed down in a coffin.) He examined it with the utmost 
care ; but he came to the conclusion that it was certainly 
dead. Nevertheless, as the joints of the limbs were still 
flexible, although seven hours had elapsed since its ap- 
parent death, he left the strictest injunctions to watch 
the body carefully, to apply stimulants to the nostrils 
from time to time, to slap the palms of the hands, and 
the like. At half-past three o'clock symptoms of re- 
turning animation showed themselves, and the patient 
recovered. 

The period during which every ordinary sign of life 
may be absent, without the prevention of their return, 
is unknown, but in well-authenticated cases it has much 
exceeded the period observed in the above instance. 
Here is an example borrowed from the Journal des 
jSavans, 1741. 

There was a Colonel Russell, whose wife, to whom he 
was affectionately attached, died, or appeared to do so. 
But he would not allow the body to be buried; and 



VAMPYRISM. 45 

threatened to shoot any one who should interfere to 
remove it for that purpose. His conduct was guided by 
reason as well as by affection and instinct. He said he 
would not part from the body till its decomposition had 
begun. Eight days had passed, during which the body 
of his wife gave no sign of life : when, as he sat bedewing 
her hand with his tears, the church-bell tolled, and, to 
his unspeakable amazement, his wife sat up and said — 
"That is the last bell; we shall be too late." She reco- 
vered. 

There are cases on record of persons, who could spon- 
taneously fall into death-trance. Monti, in a letter to 
Haller, adverts to several ; and mentions, in particular, 
a peasant upon whom, when he assumed this state, the 
flies would settle; breathing, the pulse, and all ordinary 
signs of life disappeared. A priest of the name of 
Caelius Rhodaginus had the same faculty. But the most 
celebrated instance is that of Colonel Townshend, men- 
tioned in the surgical works of Gooch, by whom and by 
Dr. Cheyne and Dr. Baynard, and by Mr. Shrine, an 
apothecary, the performance of Colonel Townshend was 
seen and attested. They had long attended him, for he 
was an habitual invalid, and he had often invited them to 
witness the phenomenon of his dying and coming to life 
again ; but they had hitherto refused, from fear of the 
consequences to himself: at last they assented. Accord- 
ingly, in their presence, Colonel Townshend laid himself 
down on his back, and Dr. Chevne undertook to observe 
his pulse ; Dr. Baynard laid his hand on his heart, and 
Mr. Shrine had a looking-glass to hold to his mouth. 
After a few seconds, pulse, breathing, and the action of 
the heart, were no longer to be observed. Each of the 
5 



46 VAMPYRISM. 

witnesses satisfied himself of the entire cessation of these 
phenomena. When the death-trance had lasted half-an- 
hour, the doctors began to fear that their patient had 
pushed the experiment too far, and was dead in earnest; 
and they were preparing to leave the house, when a 
slight movement of the body attracted their attention. 
They renewed their routine of observation; when the 
pulse and sensible motion of the heart gradually returned, 
and breathing, and consciousness. The tale ends abrupt- 
ly. Colonel Townshend, on recovering, sent for his 
attorney, made his will, and died, for good and all, six 
hours afterwards. 

Although many have recovered from death-trance, and 
there seems to be in each case a definite period to its 
duration, yet its event is not always so fortunate. The 
patient sometimes really dies during its continuance, 
either unavoidably, or in consequence of adequate mea- 
sures not being taken to stimulate him to waken, or to 
support life. The following very good instance rests on 
the authority of Dr. Schmidt, a physician of the hospital 
of Paderborn, where it occurred, (Rheinisch-Westphalis- 
cher Anzeiger, 1835, No. 57 and 58.) 

A young man of the name of Caspar Kreite, from 
Berne, died in the hospital of Paderborn, but his body 
could not be interred for three weeks, for the following 
reasons. During the first twenty-four hours after draw- 
ing its last breath, the corpse opened its eyes, and the 
pulse could be felt, for a few minutes, beating feebly and 
irregularly. On the third and fourth day, points of the 
skin, which had been burned to test the reality of his 
death, suppurated. On the fifth day the corpse changed 
the position of one hand : on the ninth day a vesicular 



VAMPYRISM. 47 

eruption appeared on the back. For nine days there 
was a vertical fold of the skin of the forehead — a sort of 
frown — and the features had not the character of death. 
The lips remained red till the eighteenth day; and the 
joints preserved their flexibility from first to last. He 
lay in this state in a warm room for nineteen days, 
without any farther alteration than a sensible wasting in 
flesh. Till after the nineteenth day no discoloration of 
the body, or odour of putrefaction, was observed. He 
had been cured of ague, and laboured under a slight 
chest affection ; but there had been no adequate cause 
for his death. It is evident that this person was much 
more alive than many are in the death-trance; and one 
half suspects that stimulants and nourishment, properly 
introduced, might have entirely reanimated him. 

I might exemplify death-trance by many a well authen- 
ticated romantic story. — A noise heard in a vault ; the 
people, instead of breaking open the door, go for the 
keys, and for authority to act, and return too late ; the 
unfortunate person is found dead, having previously 
gnawn her hand and arm in agony. — A lady is buried 
with a jewel of value on her finger; thieves open the 
vault to possess themselves of the treasure; the ring can- 
not be drawn from the finger, and the thieves proceed to 
cut the finger off; the lady, wakening from her trance, 
scares the thieves away, and recovers. — A young married 
lady dies and is buried ; a former admirer, to whom her 
parents had refused her hand, bribes the sexton to let 
him see once more the form he loved. The body oppor- 
tunely comes to life at this moment, and flies from Paris 
with its first lover to England, where they are married. 
Venturing to return to France, the lady is recognised, 



48 VAMPYRISM. 

and is reclaimed by her previous husband through a suit 
at law; her counsel demurs, on the ground of the deser- 
tion and burial ; but the law not admitting this plea, she 
flies again to England with her preserver, to avoid the 
judgment of the parliament of Paris, in the acts of which 
the case stands recorded. There are one or two other 
cases that I dare not cite, the particulars of which tran- 
scend the wildest flights of imagination. 

It may be thought that these are all tales of the olden 
time ; and that the very case I have given from the hos- 
pital at Paderborn shows that now medical men are suffi- 
ciently circumspect, and the public really on its guard 
to prevent a living person being interred as one dead. 
And I grant that in England, among all but the poorest 
class, the danger is practically inconsiderable of being 
buried alive. But that it still exists for every class, and 
that for the poor the danger is great and serious, I am 
afraid there is too much reason for believing. It is stated 
in Froriep's JSfotizen, 1829, No. 522, that, agreeably to 
a then recent ordinance in New York, coffins presented 
for burial were kept above ground eight days, open at 
the head, and so arranged, that the least movement of 
the body would ring a bell, through strings attached to 
the hands and feet. It will hardly be credited, that out 
of twelve hundred whose interment had been thus post- 
poned, six returned to life — one in every two hundred! 
The arrangement thus beneficently adopted at New York 
is, however, imperfect, as it makes time the criterion 
for interment. The time is not known during which a 
body in death-trance may remain alive. Nothing but 
one positive condition of the body, which I will presently 
mention, authenticates death. It is frightful to think 



VAMPYRISM. 49 

how, in the south of Europe, within twenty-four hours 
after the last breath bodies are shovelled into pits among 
heaped corpses ; and to imagine what fearful agonies of 
despair must sometimes be encountered by unhappy 
beings, who wake amid the unutterable horrors of such 
a grave. But it is enough to look at home, and to make 
no delay in providing there for the careful watching of 
the bodies of the poor, till life has certainly departed. 
Many do not dream how barbarous and backward the 
vaunted nineteenth century will appear to posterity! 

But there is another danger to which society is ob- 
noxious through not making sufficient account of the 
contingency of death-trance, that appears to me more 
urgent and menacing than even the risk of being buried 
alive. 

The danger I advert to is not this; but this is some- 
thing — 

The Cardinal Espinosa, prime minister under Philip 
the Second of Spain, died, as it was supposed, after a 
short illness. His rank entitled him to be embalmed. 
Accordingly, the body was opened for that purpose. The 
lungs and heart had just been brought into view, when 
the latter was seen to beat. The cardinal awakening at 
the fatal moment, had still strength enough left to seize 
with his hand the knife of the anatomist ! 

But it is this — 

On the 23d of September, 1763, the Abbe Prevost, the 
French novelist and compiler of travels, was seized with 
a fit in the forest of Chantilly. The body was found, 
and conveyed to the residence of the nearest clergyman. 
It was supposed that death had taken place through 
apoplexy. But the local authorities, desiring to be satis- 

5* 



50 



VAMPYKISM. 



fied of the fact, ordered the body to be examined. During 
the process, the poor abbe uttered a cry of agony. — It 
"was too late. 

It is to be observed that cases of sudden and unex- 
plained death are, on the one hand, the cases most likely 
to furnish a large percentage of death-trance ; and, on 
the other, are just those in which the anxiety of friends 
or the over-zealousness of a coroner is liable to lead to 
premature anatomization. Nor does it even follow that, 
because the body happily did not wake while being dis- 
sected, the spark of life was therefore extinct. This 
view, however, is too painful to be followed out in refe- 
rence to the past. But it imperatively suggests the 
necessity of forbidding necroscopic examinations, before 
there is perfect evidence that life has departed — that is, 
of extending to this practice the rule which ought to be 
made absolute in reference to interment. 

Thus comes out the practical importance of the ques- 
tion, how is it to be known that the body is no longer 
alive ? 

The entire absence of the ordinary signs of life is 
insufficient to prove the absence of life. The body may 
be externally cold ; the pulse not be felt; breathing may 
have ceased; no bodily motion may occur; the limbs 
may be stiff (through spasm;) the sphincter muscles 
relaxed; no blood may flow from an opened vein; the 
eyes may have become glassy; there may be partial 
mollification to offend the sense with the smell of death; 
and yet the body may be alive. 

The only security we at present know of, that life has 
left the body, is the supervention of chemical decomposi- 
tion, shown in commencing change of colour of the integu- 



VAMPYRISM. 51 

ments of the abdomen and throat to blue and green, and 
an attendant cadaverous fetor. 

To return from this important digression to the former 
subject of the Vampyr superstition. The second element 
which we have yet to explain is the Vampyr visit and its 
consequence — the lapse of the party visited into death- 
trance. There are two ways of dealing with this knot ; 
one is to cut it, the other to untie it. 

It may be cut, by denying the supposed connexion 
between the Vampyr visit and the supervention of death- 
trance in the second party. Nor is the explanation thus 
obtained devoid of plausibility. There is no reason why 
death-trance should not, in certain seasons and places, 
be epidemic. Then the persons most liable to it would 
be those of weak and irritable nervous systems. Again, 
a first effect of the epidemic might be further to shake 
the nerves of weaker subjects. These are exactly the 
persons who are likely to be infected with imaginary 
terrors, and to dream, or even to fancy, they have seen 
Mr. or Mrs. such a one, the last victims of the epidemic. 
The dream or impression upon the senses might again 
recur, and the sickening patient have already talked of 
it to his neighbours, before he himself was seized with 
death-trance. On this supposition, the Vampyr visit 
would sink into the subordinate rank of a mere premoni- 
tory symptom. 

To myself, I must confess, this explanation, the best 
I am yet in a position to offer, appears barren and 
jejune ; and not at all to do justice to the force and 
frequency, or, as tradition represents the matter, the 
universality of the Vampyr visit as a precursor of the 
victim's fate. Imagine how strong must have been the 



52 VAMPYRISM. 

conviction of the reality of the apparition, how common 
a feature it must have been, to have led to the laying 
down of the unnatural and repulsive process customarily 
followed at the Vampyr's grave, as the regular and pro- 
per preventive of ulterior consequences. 

I am disposed, therefore, rather to try and untie this 
knot, and with that object to wait, hoping that some- 
thing may turn up in the progress of these inquiries to 
assist me in its solution. In the mean time, I would beg 
leave to consider this second half of the problem a com- 
pound phenomenon, the solutions of the two parts of 
which may not emerge simultaneously. The Vampyr 
visit is one thing ; its presumed contagious effect another. 

The Vampyr visit ! Well, it is clear the Vampyr could 
not have left his grave bodily — or, at all events, if he 
could, he never could have buried himself again. Yet 
in his grave they always found him. So the body could 
not have been the visitant. Then, in popular language, 
it was the ghost of the Vampyr that haunted its future 
victim. The ghostly nature of the visitant could not 
have been identified at a luckier moment. The very 
subject which I next propose to undertake is the analysis 
of ghosts. I have, therefore, only to throw the Vampyr 
ghost into the crucible with the rest ; and to-morrow I 
may perhaps be able to report the rational composition 
of the whole batch. 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 53 



LETTEK III. 

Unreal Ghosts — Law of Sensorial Illusions — Cases of Nicolai, 
Schwedenborg, Joan of Arc — Fetches — Churchyard ghosts. 

The projected analysis has been crowned with success. 
The fumes of superstition have been driven off, and the 
ghosts have been reduced to rational elements. All 
trace of supernatural agency has vanished; and in its 
place are found three principles — one physical, two psy- 
chical — by the help of which every conceivable ghost 
may in future be alternately decomposed and recompound- 
ed by the merest tyro. 

The first of which I shall describe the nature and 
operation is a psychical truth, already known to most 
persons of education. It is of very general use in ghost- 
building; it forms the immediate personnel of every 
ghost ; and is of so active a nature that alone, or assisted 
by a little credulity, it is enough to constitute the simplest 
kind — a common fetch. Mixed with a dose of mental 
anxiety, or as much remorse as will lie on the point of a 
dagger, it will form a troublesome retrospective ghost. 
The second principle— a physical one, less generally 
known — is the basis of that sturdy apparition the church- 
yard ghost, which it will turn out in very fair style aided 
by fancy alone ; but, to perfect the illusive result, the 
co-operation of the first principle is necessary. The 
third, an entirely new one, is the foundation of real 
ghosts — that is, of ghosts which announce unexpected 
events, distant in space or time ; the same principle is 
concerned in true dreams, and in second-sight. 



54 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

The first of the three principles adverted to is the 
physiological fact that, when the blood is heated, the 
nervous system overstrained, or digestion out of sorts, 
the thereby directly or sympathetically disordered brain 
is liable to project before us illusory forms, which are 
coloured and move like life, and are so far undistinguish- 
able from reality. Sometimes a second sense is drawn 
into the phantasmagoria, and the fictitious beings speak 
as you do. Almost always the illusion stops there. But 
in one or two marvellous cases, the touch has been in- 
volved in the hallucination, and the ghost has been tangi- 
ble. These phenomena are termed sensorial illusions. 
The visual part of them, the first and commonest, has 
been the most attended to. The cause immediately pro- 
ducing it appears to be an affection, not of the organ of 
vision, but of that part of the brain in which the nerves 
of seeing take their origin. This organ it is which in 
health realizes our sensations of colour, and converts 
them into visual perceptions. Like other parts of the 
brain, it is stored with memories of its past impressions, 
ready to be evoked— either pure and true by conception, 
or any how combined by fancy. In perfect health, a 
chance moment of warm recollection will call up from 
this source the once familiar face transiently, but how 
distinctly ! 

In its morbid state, the beings it projects before us are 
for the most part strangers, just as the personages we 
meet in our dreams are exceptionally only our living and 
present acquaintance. 

The most instructive case of sensorial illusions on 
record, as containing the largest illustration of the phe- 
nomena, is that of Nicolai, the bookseller of Berlin. 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 55 

The narrative was read before the Academy of Sciences 
at Berlin, in 1799. Its substance runs thus: — Nicolai 
had met with some family troubles, which much'disturbed 
him. Then, on the first of January, 1791, there stood 
before him, at the distance of ten paces, the ghost of his 
eldest son. He pointed at it, directing his wife to look. 
She saw it not, and tried to convince Nicolai that it was 
an illusion. In a quarter of an hour it vanished. In 
the afternoon, at four o'clock, it came again. Nicolai 
was alone. He went to his wife's room, the ghost fol- 
lowed him. About six other apparitions joined the first, 
and they walked about among each other. After some 
days the apparition of his son stayed away; but its place 
was filled with the figures of a number of persons, some 
known, some unknown to Nicolai — some of dead, others 
of living persons. The known ones represented distant 
acquaintances only. The figures of none of Nicolai's 
habitual friends were there. The appearances were 
almost always human ; occasionally a man on horseback, 
and birds, and dogs, would present themselves. The 
apparitions came mostly after dinner, at the commence- 
ment of digestion ; they were just like real persons, the 
colouring a thought fainter. The apparitions were equally 
distinct whether Nicolai was alone or in society, in the 
dark as by day; in his own house or in those of others; 
but in the latter case they were less frequent, and they 
very seldom made their appearance in the streets. During 
the first eight days they seemed to take very little notice 
of one another, but walked about like people at a fair, 
only here and there communing with each other. They 
took no notice of Nicolai, or of the remarks he addressed 
regarding them to his wife and physician. No effort of 



56 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

his would dismiss them, or bring an absent one back. 
When he shut his eyes, they sometimes disappeared, 
sometimes remained; when he opened his eyes, they were 
there as before. After a week they became more nume- 
rous, and began to converse. They conversed with one 
another first, and then addressed him. Their remarks 
were short and unconnected, but sensible and civil. His 
acquaintances inquired after his health, and expressed 
sympathy with him, and spoke in terms comforting him. 
The apparitions were most conversable when he was alone ; 
nevertheless, they mingled in the conversation when 
others were by, and their voices had the same sound as 
those of real persons. The illusion went on thus from 
the 24th of February to the 20th of April; so that Nico- 
lai, who was in good bodily health, had time to become 
tranquillized about the nature of his visiters, and to ob- 
serve them at his ease. At last they rather amused him ; 
then the doctors thought of an efficient plan of treatment. 
They prescribed leeches; and then followed the "denoue- 
ment' ' of this interesting representation. The apparitions 
became pale, and vanished. On the 20th of April, at the 
time of applying the leeches, Nicolai's room was full of 
figures moving about among each other. They first began 
to have a less lively motion ; shortly afterwards their 
colours became paler, in another half hour paler still, 
though the forms still remained. About seven o'clock 
in the evening the figures had become colourless, and they 
moved scarcely at all; but their outline was still tolerably 
perfect. Gradually that became less and less defined; 
at last they disappeared, breaking into air, fragments 
only remaining, which at last all vanished. By eight 
o'clock all were gone, and Nicolai subsequently saw no 
more of them. 



UNREAL GHOSTS, 57 

In general, as in Nicolai's case, the sight is the sense 
at first and alone affected. Illusions of the hearing, if 
they occur, follow later. In some most extraordinary 
cases, I have observed that the touch has likewise parti- 
cipated in the affection ; the following is an instance : — 

Herr von Baczko, already subject to visual hallucina- 
tions of a diseased nervous system, his right side weak 
with palsy, his right eye blind, and the vision of the left 
imperfect, was engaged one evening shortly after the 
battle of Jena, as he tells in his autobiography, in trans- 
lating a pamphlet into Polish, when he felt a poke in his 
loins. He looked round, and found that it proceeded 
from a Negro or Egyptian boy, seemingly about twelve 
years of age. Although he was persuaded the whole was 
an illusion, he thought it best to knock the apparition 
down, when he felt that it offered a sensible resistance. 
The Negro then attacked him on the other side, and gave 
his left arm a particularly disagreeable twist, when Baczko 
again pushed him off. The Negro continued to visit him 
constantly during four months, preserving the same ap- 
pearance, and remaining tangible ; then he came seldom- 
er; and, finally appearing as a brown-coloured appari- 
tion with an owl's head, he took his leave. 

Sensorial illusions, technically speaking, are not mental 
delusions; or they become so only when they are believed 
to be realities. So sensorial illusions are not insanity, 
neither do they menace that disorder : they are not its 
customary precursors. Nevertheless, they may accom- 
pany the first outbreak of madness ; and they occur much 
more frequently in lunatics than in persons of sound mind. 
In insanity they are firmly believed in by the patient, 
whose delusions they may either suggest or be shaped by. 
6 



58 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

In insanity, illusions of the hearing often occur alone, 
which is comparatively rare in sane people. 

The objects of visual illusions are commonly men and 
women; but animals, and even inanimate objects, some- 
times constitute them. A lady whose sight was failing 
her had long visions every day of rows of buildings, 
houses, and parks, and such like. The subjects of visual 
illusions are generally perfectly trivial, like the events 
of a common dream. But, though susceptible of change, 
their custom is to recur with much the same character 
daily. One patient could at will summon the apparition 
of an acquaintance to join the rest; but, once there, he 
could not get rid of him. 

Sometimes it happens that sensorial illusions are in ac- 
cordance with a congenial train of thought — for instance, 
with peculiar impressions referring to religion. They 
are then very liable to be construed by the patient into 
realities, and to materially influence his conversation and 
conduct. He remains, no doubt, strictly sane in the 
midst of these delusions. But he is apt not to be thought 
so; or, to use a figure, the world's opinion of such a per- 
son becomes a polar force, and society is divided into his 
admiring followers and those who think him a lunatic. 
Such was, and remains, the fate of Schwedenborg. 

Schwedenborg, the son of a Swedish clergyman of the 
name of Schwedberg, ennobled as Schwedenborg, was up 
to the year 1743, which was the fifty-fourth of his age, 
an ordinary man of the world, distinguished only in lite- 
rature, having written many volumes on philosophy and 
science, and being professor in the Mineralogical School, 
where he was much respected. On a sudden, in the year 
1743, he believed himself to have got into a commerce 
with the world of spirits, which so fully took possession 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 59 

of his thoughts, that he not only published their revelations, 
but was in the habit of detailing their daily chat with him. 
Thus he says, " I had a conversation the other day on that 
very point with the apostle Paul," or with Luther, or some 
other dead person. Schwedenborg continued in what he 
believed to be constant communion with spirits till his 
death, in 1772. He was, without doubt, in the fullest 
degree convinced of the reality of his spiritual commerce. 
So in a letter to the Wurtemburg Prelate, Oetinger, dated 
November 11, 1766, he uses the following words : " If I 
have spoken with the apostles ? To this I answer, I con- 
versed with St. Paul during a whole year, particularly 
with reference to the text, Romans iii. 28. I have three 
times conversed with St. John, once with Moses, and a 
hundred times with Luther, who allowed that it was against 
the warning of an angel that he professed fidem solam, 
and that he stood alone upon the separation from the Pope. 
With angels, finally, have I these twenty years conversed, 
and converse daily." 

Of the angels, he says, "They have human forms, the 
appearance of men, as I have a thousand times seen ; for 
I have spoken with them as a man with other men — often 
with several together — and I have seen nothing in the 
least to distinguish them from other men." They had, in 
fact, exactly the same appearance as Nicolai's visiters. 
"Lest any one should call this an illusion, or imaginary 
perception, it is to be understood that I am accustomed 
to see them when myself perfectly wide awake, and in 
full exercise of my observation. The speech of an angel, 
or of a spirit, sounds like and as loud as that of a man ; 
but it is not heard by the bystanders. The reason is, 
that the speech of an angel, or a spirit, finds entrance first 
into a mans thoughts, and reaches his organs of hearing 



60 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

from within." A wonderful instance this last reason how 
it is possible cum ratione insanire; he analyzes the illu- 
sion perfectly, even when he is most deceived by it. 

" The angels who converse with men speak not in their 
own language, but in the language of the country; and 
likewise in other languages which are known to a man, not 
in languages which he does not understand.' ' Schweden- 
borg here interrupted the angels, and, to explain the 
matter, observed that they most likely appeared to speak 
his mother tongue, because, in fact, it was not they who 
spoke, but himself after their suggestions. The angels would 
not allow this, and went away at the close of the conver- 
sation unpersuaded. 

The following fiction is very fine: "When approaching? 
the angels often appear like a ball of light ; and they 
travel in companies so grouped together — they are al- 
lowed so to unite by the Lord — that they may act as one 
being, and share each other's ideas and knowledge ; and 
in this fornvthey bound through the universe, from planet 
tojplanet." 

A still more interesting example of the influence of 
sensorial illusions on human conduct is furnished by the 
touching history of Joan of Arc. 

"It is now seven years ago," so spoke before her 
judges the simple but high-minded maiden — "it was a sum- 
mer day, towards the middle hour, I was about thirteen 
years old, and was in my father's garden, that I heard for 
the first time, on my right hand, towards the church, a voice, 
and there stood a figure in a bright radiance before my 
eyes. It had the appearance and look of a right good 
and virtuous man, bore wings, was surrounded with light 
on all sides, and by the angels of heaven. It was the 
archangel Michael. The voice seemed to me to com- 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 61 

mand respect ; but I was yet a child, and was frightened 
at the figure, and doubted very much whether it were the 
archangel. I saw him and the angels as distinctly before 
my eyes as I now see you, my judges." With words of 
encouragement the archangel announced to her that God 
had taken pity upon France, and that she must hasten to 
the assistance of the King. At the same time he pro- 
mised her that St. Catharine and St. Margaret would 
shortly visit her : he told her that she should do what 
they commanded her, because they were sent by God to 
guide and conduct her. "Upon this," continued Joan, 
" St. Catharine and St. Margaret appeared to me, as the 
archangel had foretold. They ordered me to get ready 
to go to Robert de Beaudricourt, the King's captain. He 
would several times refuse me, but at last would consent, 
and give me people who would conduct me to the King. 
Then should I raise the siege of Orleans. I replied to 
them that I was a poor child, who understood nothing 
about riding on horseback and making war. They said 
I should carry my banner with courage ; God would help 
me, and win back for my king his entire kingdom. As 
soon as I knew," continued Joan, "that I was to proceed 
on this errand, I avoided as much as I could taking part 
in the sports and amusements of my young companions." 
6i So have the saints conducted me during seven years, 
and have given me support and assistance in all my need 
and labours; and now at present," said she to her judges, 
"no day goes by but they come to see me." "I seldom 
see the saints that they are not surrounded with a halo 
of light; they wear rich and precious crowns, as it is 
reasonable they should. I see them always under the 
same forms, and have never found in their discourse any 
.discrepancies. I know how to distinguish one from the 

6* 



62 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

other, and distinguish them as well by the sound of their 
voices as by their salutation. They come often without 
my calling upon them. But when they do not come, I 
pray to the Lord that he will send them to me ; and never 
have I needed them but they have visited me." 

Such is part of the defence of the heroic Joan of Arc, 
who was taken prisoner by the Duke of Burgundy on the 
23d of May, 1430 — sold by him for a large sum to the 
English, and by them put on her trial as a heretic, idola- 
tress, and magician — condemned, and finally burned alive 
on the 30th of May, 1431 ! 

Her innocence, simplicity, and courage incense one 
sadly against her judges; but it is likely there were at 
that time many good and sensible persons who approved 
of her sentence, and never suspected its cruelty and in- 
justice. Making allowance for the ignorance and barba- 
rity of the age, her treatment was, perhaps, not worse 
than that of Abd-el-Kader now. Her visions — they were 
palpably the productions of her own fancy, the figures 
of saints and angels, which she had seen in missals, pro- 
jected before her mental sight; and their cause the in- 
stinctive workings, unknown to herself, of her young high- 
couraged and enthusiastic heart, shaping its suggestions 
into holy prophesyings — the leading facts of which her 
resolute will realized, while their actual discrepancies with 
subsequent events she pardonably forgot.* 

I will present yet another and less pleasing picture, 
where the subject of sensorial illusions was of infirm mind, 
and they struck upon the insane chord, and reason jangled 
harshly out of tune. It would be a curious question 
whether such a sensorial illusion as overthrew the young 

* I cannot deny that another principle; afterwards to be explained, 
may have been additionally in operation in this interesting case. 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 63 

seer's judgment in the following case, could have occurred 
to a mind previously sane ; whether, for instance, it could 
have occurred to Schwedenborg, and, in that event, how 
he would have dealt with it. 

Arnold (a German writer) relates, in his history of the 
church and of heresy, how there was a young man in 
Konigsberg, well educated, the natural son of a priest ? 
who had the impression that he was met near a crucifix 
on the wayside by seven angels, who revealed to him that 
he was to represent God the Father on earth, to drive 
all evil out of the world, &c. The poor fellow, after pon- 
dering upon this illusion a long time, issued a circular, 
beginning thus: 

" We John, Albrecht, Adelgreif, Syrdos, Amata, Kane- 
mata, Kilkis, Mataldis, Schmalkilimundis, Sabrandis, 
Elioris, Hyperarch-High-priest and Emperor, Prince of 
Peace of the whole world, Hyperarch-King of the holy 
kingdom of Heaven, Judge of the living and of the dead, 
God and Father, in whose divinity Christ will come on 
the last day to judge the world, Lord of all lords, King 
of all kings, " &c. 

He was thereupon thrown into prison at Konigsberg, 
where every means were used by the clergy to reclaim 
him from these blasphemous and heretical notions. To 
all their entreaties, however, he listened only with a smile 
of pity — "that they should think of reclaiming God the 
Father/' He was then put to the torture, and as what he 
endured made no alteration in his convictions, he was con- 
demned to have his tongue torn out with red-hot tongs, to 
be cut in four quarters, and then burned under the gal- 
lows. He wept bitterly, not at his own fate, but that 
they should pronounce such a sentence on the Deity. 
The executioner was touched with pity, and implored him 



64 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

to make a final recantation. But he persisted that he 
was God the Father, whether they pulled his tongue out 
by the roots or not; and so he was executed! 

From the preceding forcible illustrations of the work- 
ing of sensorial illusions on individual minds, it is to de- 
scend a little in interest to trace their ministry in giving 
rise to the rickety forms of popular superstition. How- 
ever, the material may be the same, whether it be cast for 
the commemoration of a striking event or coined for vul- 
gar currency. And here is a piece of the latter descrip- 
tion, with the recommendation of being at least fresh 
from the mint, and spic-and-span new — an instance of 
superstition surviving in England in the middle of the 
nineteenth century. 

A young gentleman, who has recently left Oxford, told 
me that he was one evening at a supper-party in college, 
when they were joined by a common friend on his return 
from hunting. They expected him, but were struck with 
his appearance. He was pale and agitated. On ques- 
tioning him, they learned the cause. During the latter 
part of his ride home, he had been accompanied by a 
horseman, who kept exact pace with him, the rider and 
horse being close fac-similes of himself and the steed he 
rode, even to the copy of a new fangled bit which he 
sported that day for the first time. He had, in fact, seen 
his "double" or "Fetch," and it had shaken his nerves 
pretty considerably. His friends advised him to consult the 
college-tutor, who failed not to give him some good advice, 
and hoped the warning would not be thrown away. My 
informant, who thought the whole matter very serious, and 
was inclined to believe the unearthly visit to have been 
no idle one, added that it had made the ghost-seer, for 
the time at least, a wiser and better man. 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 05 

Such a visionary duplicate of one's-self — one's fetch — 
is a not unfrequent form of sensorial illusion. In more 
ignorant days the appearance of a fetch excited much ap- 
prehension. It was supposed to menace death or serious 
calamity to its original. Properly viewed, unless it pro- 
ceed from hard work and overstrained thought, (from 
which you can desist,) it indicates something wrong in 
your physical health, and its warning goes no further 
than to consult a doctor, to learn, " what rhubarb, senna, 
or what purgative drug will drive the spectre hence." 
The efficiency of such means was shown in the case of 
Nicolai. Yet in this case, I may remark, the originating 
cause of the attack had been anxiety about the very son 
whose apparition was the first of the throng to visit him. 
Had the illusion continued limited to the figure of the 
son, it would have been more questionable what art could 
do towards dismissing it. At all events, in such a case, 
the first thing is to remove the perilous stuff that weighs 
upon the mind. So the personage whose words I have 
been using was doubtless right, in his own case, to " throw 
physic to the dogs." 

In the tragedy of Macbeth, sensorial illusions are made 
to play their part with curious physiological correctness. 
The mind of Macbeth is worn by the conflict between 
ambition and duty. At last his better resolves give way ; 
and his excited fancy projects before him the fetch of his 
own dagger, which marshals him the way that he shall 
go. The spectator is thus artistically prepared for the 
further working of the same infirmity in the apparition of 
Banquo, which, unseen by his guests, is visible only to the 
conscience-stricken murderer. With a scientific precision 
no less admirable, the partner of his guilt — a woman — 
is made to have attacks of trance, (to which women are 



66 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

more liable than men,) caused by her disturbed mind; and 
in her trance the exact physiological character of one 
form of that disorder is portrayed — she enacts a dream, 
which is the essence of somnambulism. 

One almost doubts whether Shakspeare was aware of 
the philosophic truth displayed in these master-strokes of 
his own art. The apparitions conjured up in the witch 
scenes of the same play, and the ghost in Hamlet, are 
moulded on the pattern of vulgar superstition. He em- 
ploys indifferently the baser metal and the truthful inspi- 
rations of his own genius — realizing Shelley's strange 

figure of 

"a poet hidden 
In the light of thought." 

So they say the sun is himself dark as a planet, and his 
atmosphere alone the source of light, through the gaps 
in which his common earth is seen. I am tempted — but 
it would be idle, and 1 refrain — to quote an expression 
or two, or a passage, from Shakspeare, exemplifying his 
wonderful turn for approximating to truths of which he 
must have been ignorant — where lines of admired and 
unaccountable beauty have unexpectedly acquired lucidity 
and appositeness through modern science. While, to make 
a quaint comparison, his great contemporary, Bacon, em- 
ployed the lamp of his imagination to illuminate the paths 
to the discovery of truth, Shakspeare would, with random 
intuition, seize on the undiscovered truths themselves, 
and use them to vivify the conceptions of his fancy. 

Let me now turn to explain a ghost of a more positive 
description — the churchyard ghost. The ghost will per- 
haps exclaim against so trivial a title, and one so unjust 
in reference to old superstition; but it will be seen he 
deserves no better. In popular story he had a higher 



UNREAL GHOSTS. 67 

office; his duty was to watch the body over which church 
rites had not been performed, that had been rudely in- 
earthed after violent death. As thus — 

There was a cottage in a village I could name to which 
a bad report attached. More than one who had slept in . 
it had seen, at midnight, the radiant apparition of a little 
child standing on the hearth-stone. At length suspicion 
was awakened. The hearth-stone was raised, and there 
were found buried beneath it the remains of an infant. 
A story was now divulged how the last tenant and a fe- 
male of the village had abruptly quitted the neighbour- 
hood. The ghost was real and significant enough. 

But here is a still better instance from a trustworthy 
German work, P. Kieffer's Archives. The narrative was 
communicated by Herr Ehrman of Strasburg, son-in-law 
of the well-known writer Pfeffel, from whom he received 
it. 

The ghost-seer was a young candidate for orders, 
eighteen years of age, of the name of Billing. He was 
known to have very excitable nerves, had already expe- 
rienced sensorial illusions, and was particularly sensitive 
to the presence of human remains, which made him trem- 
ble and shudder in all his limbs. Pfeffel, being blind, was 
accustomed to take the arm of this young man, and they 
walked thus together in Pfeffel's garden, near Colmar. 
At one spot in the garden, Pfeffel remarked that his com- 
panion's arm gave a sudden start, as if he had received an 
electric shock. Being asked what was the matter, Billing 
replied, "Nothing." But on their going over the same 
spot again, the same effect recurred. The young man 
being pressed to explain the cause of his disturbance, 
avowed that it arose from a peculiar sensation which he 
always experienced when in the vicinity of human re- 



68 UNREAL GHOSTS. 

mains ; that it was his impression a human body must be 
interred there; but that, if Pfeffel would return with him 
at night, he should be able to speak with greater confi- 
dence. Accordingly they went together to the garden 
when it was dark, and as they approached the spot, Bil- 
ling observed a faint light over it. At ten paces from it 
he stopped, and would go no farther, for he saw hovering 
over it, or self-supported in the air — its feet only a few 
inches from the ground — a luminous female figure, nearly 
five feet high, with the right arm folded on her breast, 
the left hanging by her side. When Pfeffel himself 
stepped forward and placed himself about where the 
figure appeared to be, Billing said it was now on his right 
hand, now on his left, now behind, now before him. When 
Pfeffel cut the air with his stick, it seemed as if it went 
through and divided a light flame, which then united 
again. The visit, repeated the next night, in company 
with some of Pfeffel's relatives, gave the same result. 
They did not see any thing. Pfeffel then, unknown to the 
ghost-seer, had the ground dug up, when there was found 
at some depth, beneath a layer of quicklime, a human body 
in progress of decomposition. The remains were removed, 
and the earth carefully replaced. Three days after- 
wards, Billing, from whom this whole proceeding had 
been kept concealed, was again led to the spot by Pfeffel. 
He walked over it now without experiencing any unusual 
impression whatever. 

The explanation of this mysterious phenomenon has 
been but recently arrived at. The discoveries of Von Rei- 
chenbach, of which I gave a sketch in the first letter, an- 
nounce the principle on which it depends. Among these 
discoveries is the fact that the Od force makes itself visi- 
ble as a dim light or waving flame to highly sensitive sub- 



UNREAL GHOSTS/ 69 

jects. Such persons, in the dark, see flames issuing from 
the poles of magnets and crystals. Von Reichenbach 
eventually discovered that the Od force is distributed uni- 
versally, although in varying quantities. But among the 
causes which excite its evolution, one of the most active 
is chemical decomposition. Then, happening to remem- 
ber Pfeffel's ghost story, it occurred to Von Reichenbach 
that what Billing had seen was possibly Od light. To 
test the soundness of this conjecture, Miss Reichel, a very 
sensitive subject, was taken at night to an extensive bury- 
ing-ground near Vienna, where interments take place 
daily, and there are many thousand graves. The result 
did not disappoint Von Reichenbach's expectations. 
Whithersoever Miss ReichM turned Jier eyes, she saw 
masses of flame. This appearance manifested itself most 
about recent g'raves. About very old ones it was not 
visible. She described the appearance as resembling less 
bright flame than fiery vapour, something between fog and 
flame. In several instances the light extended four feet 
in height above the ground. When Mibd Reichel placed 
her hand on it, it seemed to her involved in a cloud of 
fire. When she stood in it, it came up to her throat. 
She expressed no alarm, being accustomed to the appear- 
ance. 

The mystery has thus been entirely solved; for it is 
evident that the spectral character of the luminous appa- 
rition, in the two instances which I have narrated, had 
been supplied by the seers themselves. So the supersti- 
tion has vanished; but, as usual, it veiled a truth. 



70 TRUE GHOSTS. 



LETTER IV, 

True Ghosts. — The apparitions themselves always sensorial illusions 
— The truth of their communications accounted for — Zschokke ? s 
Seer-gift described; to show the possibility of direct mental com- 
munication — Second-sight — The true relation of the mind to the 
living body. 

The worst of a true ghost is, that, to be sure of his 
genuineness — that is, of his veracity — one must wait the 
event. He is distinguished by no sensible and positive 
characteristics from the commoner herd. There is no- 
thing in his outward appearance to raise him in your 
opinion above a fetch. But even this fact is not barren. 
His dress, — it is in the ordinary mode of the time, in no- 
thing overdone. To be dressed thus does credit to his 
taste, as to be dressed at all evinces his sense of pro- 
priety; but alas! the same elements convict him of ob- 
jective unreality. Whence come that aerial coat and 
waistcoat, whence those visionary trousers ? — alas ! they 
can only have issued from the wardrobe in the seer's 
fancy. And, like his dress, the wearer is imaginary, a 
mere sensorial illusion, without a shadow of externality; 
he is not more substantial than a dream. 

But dreams have differences of quality no less than 
ghosts. All do not come through the ivory gate. Some 
are true and significant enough. See, there glides one 
skulking assassin-like into the shade, — he not long since 
killed his man; "Hilloa, ill-favoured Dream! come hither 
and give an account of yourself." (Enter Dream.) 

A Scottish gentleman and his wife were travelling four 
or five years ago in Switzerland. There travelled with 



TRUE GHOSTS. 71 

them a third party, an intimate friend, a lady, who some 
time before had been the object of a deep attachment on 
the part of a foreigner, a Frenchman. Well, she would 
have nothing to say to him on the topic uppermost in his 
mind, but she gave him a good deal of serious advice ? 
which she probably thought he wanted; and she ultimately 
promoted, or was a cognizant party to, his union with a 
lady whom she likewise knew. The so-married couple 
were now in America ; and the lady occasionally heard 
from them, and had every reason to believe they were 
both in perfect health. One morning, on their meeting 
at breakfast, she told her companions that she had had a 
very impressive dream the night before, which had re- 
curred twice. The scene was a room in which lay a cof- 
fin ; near to it stood her ex-lover in a luminous transfi- 
gured resplendent state ; his wife was by, looking much 
as usual. The dream had caused the lady some mis- 
givings, but her companions exhorted her to view it as a 
trick of her fancy, and she was half persuaded so to do. 
The dream, however, was right, notwithstanding. In 
process of time, letters arrived announcing the death, 
after a short illness, of the French gentleman, within the 
twenty-four hours in which the vision appeared. (Sen- 
sation — applause, followed by cries of Shame; the Dream, 
hurrying away, is hurt by the horn of the gate.) 

It would be difficult to persuade the lady who dreamed 
this dream that there was no connexion between it and 
the event it foreshadowed in her mind beyond the acci- 
dental coincidence of time. Nevertheless, to this conclu- 
sion an indifferent auditor would probably come; and 
upon the following reasoning: We sometimes dream of 
the death of an absent friend when he is alive and in 
health, just as we sometimes dream that long-lost friends 



72 TRUE GHOSTS. 

are alive. And it is quite possible — nay, likely to occur 
in the chapter of accidents — nay, certain to turn up now 
and then among the dreams of millions during centuries 
— that a fortuitous dream, seemingly referring to the fact, 
should be coincident in point of time with the death of 
a distant friend. To explain one such case, we need look 
no further than to the operation of chance. Why, then, 
ever seek another principle? 

Let us examine a parallel ghost-story. A gentleman 
has a relative in India, healthy, of good constitution, in 
the civil service, prosperous: he has ro cause for anxiety, 
and entertains none, respecting his relative. But one 
day he sees his ghost. In due course letters arrive men- 
tioning the occurrence of his relative's death on that 
day. The case is more remarkable than the last ; for the 
ghost-seer never in his life but that once experienced a 
sensorial illusion. Still ? it is evidently possible that the 
two events were, through chance alone, coincident in time. 
And if in this case, why not in another? 

Then let me adduce a more remarkable instance: A 
late General Wynyard, and the late General Sir John 
Sherbroke, when young men, were serving in Canada. 
One day — it was daylight — Mr. Wynyard and Mr. Sher- 
broke both saw pass through the room where they sat a 
figure, which Mr. Wynyard recognised as a brother then 
far away. Cne of the two walked to the door, and 
looked out upon the landing-place, but the stranger was 
not there ; and a servant who was on the stairs had seen 
nobody pass jut. In time news arrived that Mr. Wyn- 
yard's brother had died about the time of the visit of the 
apparition. 

I have had opportunities of inquiring of two near re- 
lations of this General Wynyard upon what evidence the 



TRUE GHOSTS. 73 

above story rests. They told me they had each heard it 
from his own mouth. More recently, a gentleman, whose 
accuracy of recollection exceeds that of most people, has 
told me that he had heard the late Sir John Sherbroke, 
the other party in the ghost-story, tell it much in the 
same way at a dinner-table. 

One does not feel as comfortably satisfied that the com- 
plicated coincidences in this tale admit of being referred 
to chance. The odds are enormous against two persons 
— young men in perfect health, neither of whom before 
or after this event experienced a sensorial illusion — being 
the subjects at the same moment of one, their common 
and only one, which concurred in point of time with an 
event that it foreshadowed, unless there were some real 
connexion between the event and the double apparition. 
And we feel a nascent inclination to. inquire whether — 
in case such instances as the present occasionally recur, 
and instances like the two before narrated become, when 
looked for, startingly multiplied — there exists any known 
mental or physical principle, by the help of which they 
may be explained into natural phenomena. 

The more we look after facts of the above nature, the 
more urgent becomes the want of such a means of expla- 
nation. In every family circle, in every party of men 
accidentally brought together, you will be sure to hear, 
if the conversation fall on ghosts and dreams, one or 
more instances — which the narrators represent as well 
authenticated — of intimations of the deaths of absent 
persons conveyed to friends either through an apparition 
or a dream, or an equivalent unaccountable presentiment. 
A gentleman — himself of distinguished ability — told me 
that when he w T as an undergraduate at Cambridge, he 
was secretary to a ghost society formed in sportive earnest 

7* 



74 • TRUE GHOSTS. 

by some of the cleverest young men of one of the best 
modern periods of the university. One of the results of 
their labours was the collection of about a dozen stories 
of the above description resting upon good evidence. 

Then there transpire occasionally cases with more cu- 
rious features still. Not only is the general intimation 
of an event given, but minute particulars attending it are 
figured in the dream, or communicated by the ghost. 
Such tales have sometimes been authenticated in courts 
of justice. Here is one out of last week's newspaper: — 

"In a Durham paper of last week, there was an ac- 
count of the disappearance of Mr. Smith, gardener to Sir 
Clifford Constable, w T ho, it was supposed, had fallen into 
the river Tees, his hat and stick having been found near 
the water-side. From that time up to Friday last the 
river had been dragged every day; but every effort so 
made to find the body proved ineffectual. On the night 
of Thursday, however, a person named Awde, residing 
at little Newsham, a small village about four miles from 
Wycliff, dreamt that Smith was laid under the ledge of a 
certain rock, about three hundred yards below Whorlton 
Bridge, and that his right arm was broken. Awde got up 
early on Friday, and his dream had such an effect upon 
him that he determined to go and search the river. He 
accordingly started off for that purpose, without men- 
tioning the matter, being afraid that he would be laughed 
at by his neighbours. Nevertheless, on his arriving at 
the boat-house, he disclosed his object on the man asking 
him for what purpose he required the boat. He rowed 
to the spot he had seen in his dream ; and there, strange 
to say, upon the very first trial that he made with his 
boat-hook, he pulled up the body of the unfortunate man, 
with his right %rm actually broken." — {Herald, Decem- 
ber, 1848.) 



TRUE GHOSTS. 75 

Reviewing all that I have advanced, it appears to me 
that there are two desiderata which pressingly require to 
be now supplied. First, some one should take the pains 
of authenticating at the time, and putting on permanent 
record, stories like the above, to be at the service of fu- 
ture speculators. But, secondly, so numerous and well 
attested are those already current, that the bringing for- 
ward into light of some principle by which they may be 
shown to be natural events is now peremptorily called for. 

To lead to the supply of the second desideratum, I pro- 
ceed to mention a physical phenomenon, w r hich from time 
to time occurred to the late historian and novelist, Hein- 
rich Zschokke. It is described by him in a sort of auto- 
biography, entitled Selbstschau, which he published a few 
years ago. It was only last year that Zschokke died, 
having attained a good old age. Early brought into 
public life in the troubles of Switzerland, and afterwards 
maintaining his place in public consideration by his nu- 
merous writings, he was personally widely known : he was 
universally esteemed a man of strict veracity and integ- 
rity. He writes thus of himself: — 

"If the reception of so many visiters was sometimes 
troublesome, it repaid itself occasionally either by making 
me acquainted with remarkable personages, or by bring- 
ing out a wonderful sort of seer-gift, which I called my 
inward vision, and which has always remained an enigma 
to me. I am almost afraid to say a word upon this sub- 
ject ; not for fear of the imputation of being superstitious, 
but lest I should encourage that disposition in others ; 
and yet it forms a contribution to psychology. So to 
confess. 

"It is acknowledged that the judgment which we form 
of strangers, on first meeting them, is frequently more 



76 TRUE GUGSTg. 

correct than that which we adopt upon a longer acquaint- 
ance with them. The first impression which, through 
an instinct of the soul, attracts one towards, or repels 
one from, another, becomes, after a time, more dim, and 
is weakened, either through his appearing other than at 
first, or through our becoming accustomed to him. Peo- 
ple speak, too, in reference to such cases of involuntary 
sympathies and aversions,* and attach a special certainty 
to such manifestations in children, in whom knowledge 
of mankind by experience is wanting. Others, again, 
are incredulous, and attribute all to physiognomical skill. 
But of myself. 

"It has happened to me occasionally, at the first meet- 
ing with a total stranger, when I have been listening in 
silence to his conversation, that his past life, up to the 
present mpment, with many minute circumstances be- 
longing to one or other particular scene in it, has come 
across me like a dream, but distinctly, entirely, involun- 
tarily, and unsought, occupying in duration a few minutes. 
During this period I am usually so plunged into the re- 
presentation of the stranger's life, that at last I neither 
continue to see distinctly his face, on which I was idly 
speculating, nor to hear intelligently his voice, which at 
first I was using as a commentary to the text of his phy- 
siognomy. For a long time I was disposed to consider 
these fleeting visions as a trick of the fancy; the more 
so that my dream-vision displayed to me the dress and 
movements of the actors, the appearance of the room, 
the furniture, and other accidents of the scene; till, on 
one occasion, in a gamesome mood, I narrated to my fa- 
mily the secret history of a sempstress who had just be- 
fore quitted the room. I had never seen the person be- 
fore. Nevertheless the hearers were astonished, and 



TRUE GHOSTS. I I 

laughed, and would not be persuaded but that I had a 
previous acquaintance with the former life of the person, 
inasmuch as what I had stated was perfectly true. I was 
not less astonished to find that my dream-vision agreed 
with reality. I then gave more attention to the subject^ 
and, as often as propriety allowed of it, I related to those 
whose lives had so passed before me the substance of my 
dream-vision, to obtain from them its contradiction or 
confirmation. On every occasion its confirmation fol- 
lowed, not without amazement on the part of those who 
gave it. 

" Least of all could I myself give faith to these con- 
juring tricks of my mind. Every time that I described 
to any one my dream-vision respecting him, I confidently 
expected him to answer it was not so. A secret thrill 
always came over me when the listener replied, c It hap- 
pened as you say;' or when, before he spoke, his astonish- 
ment betrayed that I was not wrong. Instead of record- 
ing many instances, I will give one which, at the time, 
made a strong impression upon me. 

" On a fair day, I went into the town of Waldshut, ac- 
companied by two young foresters who are still alive. It 
was evening, and, tired with our walk, we went into an 
inn called the Vine. We took our supper with a nume- 
rous company at the public table; when it happened that 
they made themselves merry over the peculiarities and 
simplicity of the Swiss, in connexion with the belief in 
Mesmerism, Lavater's physiognomical system, and the 
like. One of my companions, whose national pride was 
touched by their raillery, begged me to make some reply, 
particularly in answer to a young man of superior ap- 
pearance, who sat opposite, and had indulged in unre- 
strained ridicule. It happened that the events of this 



78 TRUE GHOSTS. 

very person's life had just previously passed before my 
mind. I turned to him with the question, whether he 
would reply to me with truth and candour, if I narrated 
to him the most secret passages of his history, he being 
as little known to me as I to him ? That would, I sug- 
gested, go something beyond Lavater's physiognomical 
skill. He promised, if I told the truth, to admit it openly. 
Then I narrated the events with which my dream-vision 
had furnished me, and the table learnt the history of the 
young tradesman's life, of his school years, his peccadil- 
loes, and, finally, of a little act of roguery committed by 
him on the strong box of his employer. I described the 
uninhabited room with its white walls, where, to the right 
of the brown door, there had stood upon the table the 
small black money-chest, &c. A dead silence reigned in 
the company during this recital, interrupted only when 
I occasionally asked if I spoke the truth. The man, much 
struck, admitted the correctness of each circumstance — 
even, which I could not expect, of the last. Touched 
with his frankness, I reached my hand to him across the 
table, and closed my narrative. He asked my name, 
which I gave him. We sat up late in the night conversing. 
He may be alive yet. 

" Now I can well imagine how a lively imagination 
could picture, romance-fashion, from the obvious charac- 
ter of a person, how he would conduct himself under given 
circumstances. But whence came to me the involuntary 
knowledge of accessory details, which were without any 
sort of interest, and respected people who for the most 
part were utterly indifferent to me, with whom I neither 
had, nor wished to have, the slightest association? Or 
was it in each case mere coincidence? Or had the lis- 
tener, to whom I described his history, each time other 



TRUE GHOSTS. 79 

ages in his mind than the accessory ones of my story, 
but, in surprise at the essential resemblance of my story 
to the truth, lost sight of the points of difference? Yet 
I have, in consideration of this possible source of error, 
several times taken pains to describe the most trivial cir- 
cumstances that my dream-vision has shown me. 

" Not another word about this strange seer-gift, which 
I can aver was of no use to me in a single instance, which 
manifested itself occasionally only, and quite indepen- 
dently of any volition, and often in relation to persons 
in whose history I took not the slightest interest. Nor 
am I the only one in possession of this faculty. In a 
journey with two of my sons, I fell in with an old Tyro- 
lese who travelled about, selling lemons and oranges, at 
the inn at Unterhauerstein in one of the Jura passes. 
He fixed his eyes for some time upon me, joined in our 
conversation, observed that though I did not know him 
he knew me, and began to describe my acts and deeds, to 
the no little amusement of the peasants, and astonishment 
of my children, whom it interested to learn that another 
possessed the same gift as their father. How the old 
lemon-merchant acquired his knowledge he was not able 
to explain to himself nor to me. But he seemed to attach 
great importance to his hidden wisdom."* 

In the newness of such knowledge, it is worth while to 
note separately each of the particulars which attended 
the manifestation of this strange mental faculty, with his 
account of which Zschokke has enriched psychology. 

1. Then, after the power of looking up the entire re- 
collections of another, through some other channel than 

* Zschokke told a friend of mine at Frankfort, in 1847 ; shortly be- 
fore his death, which took place at an advanced age, that in the 
latter years of his life his seer-gift had never manifested itself. 



80 TRUE GHOSTS. 

ordinary inquiry and observation — and as it seemed di- 
rectly — we may note, — 

2. The rapidity, minuteness, and precision, which cha- 
racterized the act of inspection. 

3. The feeling attending it of becoming absent or lost 
to what was going on around. 

4. Its involuntariness and unexpectedness. 

5. Its being practicable on some only ; and 

6. Those entire strangers, and at their first interview 
with the seer. 

At present I shall avail myself of the first broad fact 
alone, remarking, however, of the conditions observed in 
it, that they clearly indicate the existence of a law on 
which the phenomenon depended. And I shall assume 
it to be proved by the above crucial instance, that the 
mind, or soul, of one human being can be brought, in the 
natural course of things, and under physiological laws 
hereafter to be determined, into immediate relation with 
the mind of another living person. 

If this principle be admitted, it is adequate to explain 
all the puzzling phenomena of real ghosts and of true 
dreams. For example, the ghostly and intersomnial com- 
munications, with which we have as yet dealt, have been 
announcements of the deaths of absent parties. Suppose 
our new principle brought into play; the soul of the dying 
person is to be supposed to have come into direct communi- 
cation with the mind of his friend, with the effect of sug- 
gesting his present condition. If the seer be dreaming, 
the suggestion shapes a corresponding dream ; if he be 
awake, it originates a sensorial illusion. To speak figu- 
ratively, merely figuratively, in reference to the circula- 
tion of this partial mental obituary, I will suppose that 
the death of a human being throws a sort of gleam through 



TRUE GHOSTS. 81 

the spiritual world, which may now and then touch with 
light some fittingly disposed object ; or even two simul- 
taneously, if chance have placed them in the right rela- 
tion; — as the twin-spires of a cathedral may be momen- 
tarily illuminated by some far-off flash, which does not 
break the gloom upon the roofs below. 

The same principle is applicable to the explanation of 
the vampyr visit. The soul of the buried man is to be 
supposed to be brought into communication with his 
friend's mind. Thence follows, as a sensorial illusion, 
the apparition of the buried man. Perhaps the visit may 
have been an instinctive effort to draw the attention of 
his friend to his living grave. I beg to suggest that it 
would not be an act of superstition now, but of ordinary 
humane precaution, if one dreamed pertinaciously of a 
recently buried acquaintance, or saw his ghost, to take 
immediate steps to have the state of the body ascertained. 

It is not my intention, in the present letter, to push 
the application of this principle further. With slight 
modifications it might be brought to explain several other 
wonderful stories, which we usually neglect just from not 
seeing how to explain them. One class of these instances 
is what was termed second-sight. The belief in it for- 
merly prevailed in Scotland, and in the whole of the north 
of Europe. But the faculty, if it ever existed, seems to 
be disappearing now. However, it is difficult, one has 
heard so many examples of the correctness of its warnings 
and anticipations, not to believe that it once really mani- 
fested itself. 

A much respected Scottish lady, not unknown in lite- 
rature, told me very recently how a friend of her mother, 
whom she perfectly remembered, had been compelled to 
believe in second-sight through its occurrence in one of 
8 



82 TRUE GHOSTS. 

her servants. She had a cook, who was a continual an- 
noyance to her through her possession of this gift. On 
one occasion, when the lady expected some friends, she 
learned, a short time before they were to arrive, that the 
culinary preparations she had ordered to honour them 
had not been made. Upon her remonstrating with the 
offending cook, the latter simply but doggedly assured 
her that come they would not; that she knew it to a cer- 
tainty; and, true enough, they did not come. Some 
accident had occurred to prevent their visit. The same 
person frequently knew beforehand what her mistress's 
plans were, and was as inconvenient in her kitchen as a 
calculating prodigy in a counting-house. Things went 
perfectly right, but the manner was irregular and pro- 
voking; so her mistress turned her away. Supposing 
this story true, the phenomena look just a modification 
of Zschokke's seer-gift. 

A number of incidents there are turning up, for the 
most part on trivial occasions, which we put aside for 
fear of being thought superstitious, because as yet a na- 
tural solution is not at hand for them. Sympathy in 
general, the spread of panic fears, the simultaneous oc- 
currence of the same thoughts to two persons, the intui- 
tive knowledge of mankind possessed by some, the mag- 
netic fascination of others, may eventually be found to 
have to do with a special and unsuspected cause. Among 
anecdotes of no great conclusiveness that I have heard 
narrated of this sort, I will cite two of Lord Nelson, told 
by the late Sir Thomas Hardy to the late Admiral the 
Hon. G. Dundas, from whom I heard them. The first 
was mentioned to exemplify Nelson's quick insight into 
character. Captain Hardy was present as Nelson gave 
directions to the commander of a frigate to make sail 



TRUE GHOSTS. 83 

with all speed — to proceed to certain points, where he 
was likely to fall in with the French fleet — having seen 
the French, to go to a certain harbour, and there await 
Lord Nelson's coming. After the commander had left 
the cabin, Nelson said to Hardy, " He will go to the West 
Indies, he will see the French; he will go to the harbour 
I have directed him to ; but he will not wait for me — he 
will sail for England." The commander did so. Shortly 
before the battle of Trafalgar an English frigate was in 
advance, looking out for the enemy; her place in the 
offing was hardly discernible. Of a sudden Nelson said 
to Hardy, who was at his side, "The Celeste,'' (or what- 
ever the frigate's name was,) "the Celeste sees the 
French." Hardy had nothing to say on the matter. 
" She sees the French; she'll fire a gun." Within a little 
time, the boom of the signal-gun was heard.* 

I am not sure that my new principle will be a general 
favourite. It will be said that the cases, in which I sup- 
pose it manifested, are of too trivial a nature to justify 
so novel a hypothesis. My answer is, the cases are few 
and trivial only because the subject has not been attended 
to. For how many centuries were the laws of electricity 
preindicated by the single fact that a piece of amber, 
when rubbed, would attract light bodies ! Again, the 
school of physiological materialists will of course be op- 
posed to it. They hold that the mind is but a function 

* The following anecdote has no conceivable right to be intro- 
duced on the present occasion; but I had it on the same authority, 
and it is a pity it should be lost. As our fleet was bearing down 
upon the enemies 7 line at Trafalgar, Nelson paced the quarter-deck 
of the Victory with Sir Thomas Hardy. After a short silence, touch- 
ing his left thigh with his remaining hand ? Nelson said, "Pd give 
that, Hardy, to come out of this." 



84 TRUE GHOSTS. 

or product of the brain, and cannot therefore consistently 
admit its separate action. But their fundamental tenet 
is unsound, even upon considering the analogies of matter 
alone. 

What is meant by a product? — in what does production 
consist? Let us look for instances: a metal is produced 
from an ore; alcohol is produced from saccharine matter; 
the bones and sinews of an animal are produced from its 
food. Production, in the common signification of the 
word, means the conversion of one substance into another, 
weight for weight, agreeably with, or under, mechanical, 
chemical, and vital laws. I speak, of course, of material 
production. But the case of thought is parallel. The 
products of the poet's brain are but recombinations of for- 
mer ideas. Production, with him, is but a rearrangement 
of the elements of thought. His food may turn into or 
produce new brain ; but it is the mental impressions he 
has stored which turn into new imagery. To say that the 
brain turns into thought, is to assert that consciousness 
a nd the brain are one and the same thing, which would 
be an idle abuse of language. 

It is indeed true that, with the manifestation of each 
thought or feeling, a corresponding decomposition of the 
brain takes place. But it is equally true that, in a vol- 
taic battery in action, each movement of electric force 
developed there is attended with a waste of the metal- 
plates which help to form it. But that waste is not con- 
verted into electric fluid. The exact quantity of pure 
zinc which disappears may be detected in the form of sul- 
phate of zinc. The electricity was not produced, it was 
only set in motion, by the chemical decomposition. Here 
is the true material analogy of the relation of the brain 
to the mind. Mind, like electricity, is an imponderable 



TllUE GHOSTS. 85 

force pervading the universe: and there happen to bo 
known to us certain material arrangements, through which 
each may be influenced. We cannot, indeed, pursue the 
analogy beyond this step. Consciousness and electricity 
have nothing further in common. Their further relations 
to the dissimilar material arrangements, through which 
they may be excited or disturbed, are subjects of totally 
distinct studies, and resolvable into laws which have no 
affinity, and admit of no comparison. 

It is singular how early in the history of mankind the 
belief in the separate existence of the soul developed itseli 
as an instinct of our nature. 

Timarchus, who was curious on the subject of the demon 
of Socrates, went to the cave of Trophonius to consult 
the oracle about it. There, having for a short time in- 
haled the mephitic vapour, he felt as if he had received a 
sudden blow on the head, and sank down insensible. Then 
his head appeared to him to open, and to give issue to 
his soul into the other world; and an imaginary being 
seemed to inform him that "the part of the soul engaged 
in the body, entrammelled in its organization, is the soul 
as ordinarily understood; but that there is another part 
or province of the soul which is the daimon. This has a 
certain control over the bodily soul, and among other 
offices constitutes conscience." — "In three months," the 
vision added, "you will know more of this." At the end 
of three months Timarchus died. 



8* 



86 TRANCE. 



LETTER V. 

Trance. — Distinction of esoneural and exoneural mental phenome- 
na — Abnormal relation of the mind and nervous system possible 
— Insanity — Sleep — Essential nature of Trance — Its alliance with 
spasmodic seizures — General characters of Trance — Enumeration 
of its kinds. 

The time has now arrived for expounding the pheno- 
mena of Trance ; an acquaintance with which is necessary 
to enable you to understand the source and nature of the 
delusions with which I have yet to deal. 

You have already had glimpses of this condition. 
Arnod Paole was in a trance in the cemetery of Medu- 
egna — Timarchus was in a trance in the cave of Tro- 
phonius. 

Let me begin by developing certain preliminary con- 
ceptions relating to the subject. 

I. Common observation, the spontaneous course of our 
reflections, our instinctive interpretation of nature, reveal 
to us matter, motion, and intelligence, as the co-existing 
phenomena of the universe. In the farthest distances of 
space cognisable to our senses, we discern matter and 
motion, and their subordination to intelligence. Upon 
the earth's surface we discern, in the finely designed me- 
chanism of each plant, the agency of life; and we recog- 
nise in the microcosm of each animal a living organiza- 
tion, fitted to be the recipient of individual consciousness, 
or of personal being. 

II. The intelligence which is communicated to living 
beings becomes, to a great extent, dependent upon the 
organization with which it is combined. Thus every men- 



TRANCE. 87 

tal faculty is found to have its definite seat and habitat 
in the bodily frame. The principal successes of modern 
physiologists have been achieved in determining with what 
precise parts of the nervous system each affection of con- 
sciousness is functionally associated. Different classes of 
nerves are found to be appropriated to sensation and vo- 
1 ition ; different parts of the spinal cord are proved to 
minister to different offices; and of the subdivisions of 
the brain, each is thought to correspond with a separate 
faculty, or sentiment, or appetite. So far the mental 
forces, or operations of a living human being, may be 
conceived to be essentially esoneural, (echo vev£ov.) Each 
appears to have its proper and special workshop or labo- 
ratory in the nervous system. 

III. But there are not wanting facts which make it 
reasonable to think that our mental forces or operations 
transcend occasionally and partially the limits of our cor- 
poreal frame. The phenomena adverted to in the pre- 
ceding letter, in connexion with the narrative of Zschokke's 
beer-gift, hardly seem to admit of explanation on any 
other supposition. Nor is it a very improbable conjecture, 
that phenomena of the same class form, as it were, the 
complements of many ordinary esoneural operations. 
Possibly in common perception the mind directly reaches 
the object perceived, being excited thereto by the ante- 
cedent material impressions on our organs, and the sensa- 
tions which follow. To denote mental phenomena of the 
kind I am supposing, I propose the term exoneural, 
(*g« vevgov-) I venture even, following out this idea, to 
conjecture further, that the Od force may somehow fur- 
nish the dynamic bridge along which our exoneural appre- 
hension travels. 

IV. The affections of consciousness would thus be in 



88 TRANCE. 

part esoneural, in part exoneural, during the healthy and 
normal state of our being; the esoneural part being exe- 
cuted in immediate connexion with its appropriate organ, 
and every manifestation of it being attended with a phy- 
sical change in the latter. 

V. But it is conceivable, on the assumption of mind 
being a separate principle from matter, that the human 
soul may be capable of retaining its union with the body 
in a new, unusual, and abnormal relation. The hypothesis 
is startling enough. I adopt it only from seeing no other 
way of accounting for certain facts which, with the evi- 
dence of their reality, will presently be brought forward. 
I venture to suppose that the mind of a living man may 
energize abnormally in two ways : first, that a much larger 
share of its operations may be conducted exoneurally — 
that is, out of the body — than usual; secondly, that the 
esoneural mental functions may be conducted within the 
body in unaccustomed organs, deserting those naturally 
appropriated to them. Two or three instances have been 
already given, which favour, at all events, the supposition 
of the possibility of such an abnormal relation between 
the mind and the body being realized. But in most of 
the instances hitherto adverted to, the normal relation 
may be supposed to have remained. 

VI. Thus all the ordinary phenomena of sensorial il- 
lusions at once are esoneural, and suppose the persistence 
of the normal relation of mind and body. The material 
organ to which the physical agencies preceding sensation 
are propagated being irritated, is to be supposed to excite 
in the mind sensuous recollections or fancies that are so 
vivid as to appear realities. 

VII. In mental delusions, again, there is no reason for 
surmising the intervention of the abnormal relation. But 



TRANCE. 89 

what are mental delusions ? They are a part of insanity. 
And what is insanity ? I will summarily state its fea- 
tures; for some of the instances which remain for expla- 
nation are referrible to it, and because I delight to crush 
a volume into a paragraph. 

The phenomena of insanity may be arranged under five 
heads: The first, the insane temperament; the next three 
the fundamental forms of mental derangement; the fifth, 
the paroxysmal state. The features of the insane tem- 
perament are various; some of them are incompatible 
with the simultaneous presence of others. When a group 
of them is present, as a change in natural character, with- 
out insanity, insanity is threatened: no form of insanity 
manifests itself without the presence of some of them. 
The features of the insane temperament are these: The 
patient withdraws his sympathies from those around him, 
is shy, reserved, cunning, suspicious, with a troubled air, 
as if he felt something to be wrong, and wonders if you 
see it; he is capricious, and has flaws of temper; being 
talkative, he is flighty and extravagant; he is hurried in 
his thoughts, and mode of speaking, and gestures; he has 
fits of absence, in which he talks aloud to himself; he is 
restless, and anxious for change of place. Of the ele- 
mentary forms of insanity, one consists in the entertain- 
ment of mental delusions : the patient imagines himself 
the Deity, or a prophet, or a monarch, or that he has be- 
come enormously wealthy ; or that he is possessed by the 
devil, or is persecuted by invisible beings, or is dead, or 
very poor, or that he is the victim of public or private 
injustice. The second form is moral perversion: the pa- 
tient is depressed in spirits without a cause, perhaps to 
the extent of meditating suicide; or he feels an unac- 
countable desire to take the lives of others ; or he is im- 



00 TRANCE. 

pelled to steal, or to do gratuitous mischief; or he is a 
sot; or he has fits of ungovernable and dangerous rage. 
The third form exhibits itself in loss of connexion of ideas, 
failure of memory, loss of common intelligence, disregard 
of the common decencies of life. Each of these three 
elementary forms is sometimes met with alone; generally 
two are combined. Sensorial illusions are common in 
insanity; auditory, unaccompanied by visual illusions, are 
almost peculiar to it, and to the cognate affection of de- 
lirium from fever or inflammation of the brain. To the 
head of the paroxysmal state belongs the history of ex- 
acerbations of insanity, of their sudden outbursts in per- 
sons of the insane temperament, of their preferential con- 
nexion with this or that antecedent condition of the pa- 
tient, of their occasional periodicity. 

VII. In congenital idiotcy and imbecility, the relation 
of the mind and brain is normal. Often the defective 
organization is apparent through which the intelligence 
is repressed. In many countries a popular belief prevails 
that the imbecile have occasional glimpses of higher 
knowledge. There is no reason evident why their minds 
should not be susceptible of the abnormal relation. 

VIII. In sleep, the mind and brain are in the normal 
relation. But what is sleep, psychically considered ? 

It is best to begin by looking into the mental con- 
stituents of waking. There is then passing before us an 
endless current of images and reflections, furnished from 
our recollections, and suggested by our hopes and our 
fears, by pursuits that interest us, or by their own inter- 
associations. This current of thought is continually 
being changed or modified, through impressions made 
upon our senses. It is further liable to be still more 
importantly and systematically modified by the exercise 



TRANCE. 91 

of the faculty of Attention. The attention operates in 
a twofold manner. It enables us to detain at pleasure 
any subject of thought before the mind; and, when not 
on such urgent duty, it vigilantly inspects every idea 
w T hich presents itself, and reports if it be palpably un- 
sound or of questionable tendency. To speak with 
more precision, it is a power we have of controlling our 
thoughts, which we drill to warn us whenever the 
suggested ideas conflict with our experience or our prin- 
ciples. 

Then of sleep. We catch glimpses of its nature at the 
moments of falling asleep and of waking. When it is 
the usual time for sleep, if our attention happen to be 
livelily excited, it is in vain we court sleep. When we 
are striving to contend against the sense of overwhelming 
fatigue, what we feel is, that we can no longer command 
our attention. Then we are lost, or are asleep. Then 
the head and body drop forwards ; we have ceased to at- 
tend to the maintenance of our equilibrium. Any itera- 
tion of gentle, impressions, enough to divert attention 
from other objects, without arousing it, promotes sleep. 

Thus we recognise as the psychical basis of sleep the 
suspension of the attention. 

Are any other mental faculties suspended in sleep? 
Sensation and the influence of the will over the muscular 
system are not; for our dreams are liable to be shaped 
by what we hear. The sleeper, without waking, will turn 
his head away from a bright light, will withdraw his arm 
if you pinch it, will utter loud words which he dreams he 
is employing. The seeming insensibility in sleep, the 
apparent suspension of the influence of the will, are sim- 
ply consequences of the suspension of attention. 

I have, on another occasion, shown that the organs in 



92 TRANCE. 

which sensations are realized, and volition energizes, are 
the segments of the cranio-spinal cord in which the sen- 
tient and voluntary nerves are rooted. I think I see 
now that the seat of the attention is the " medulla ob- 
longata." For — alas for the imperfect conceptions into 
which the imperfection of language as an instrument of 
thought forces us! — what is the faculty of attention, 
which we have been considering almost as a separate ele- 
ment of mind, but the individual "ich" energizing, now 
keenly noticing impressions and thoughts, now allowing 
them to pass, while it looks on with lazy indifference ; 
now, at length, worn out and exhausted, and incapable 
of further work? But this inspecting and contrasting 
operation, where should it more naturally find its bureau 
than at a point situated between the organs of the under- 
standing and those of the will? — that is to say, some- 
where at the junction of the spinal marrow and the brain. 
Well, Magendie ascertained that just at that region there 
is a small portion of nervous matter, pressure upon which 
causes immediately heavy sleep or stupor, while its de- 
struction — for instance, the laceration of the little organ 
with the point of a needle — instantaneously and irrevoca- 
bly extinguishes life.* This precious link in our system 
is, reasonably enough, stowed away in the securest part 
of our frame — that is to say, within the head, upon the 
strong central bone of the base of the skull. How came 
the fancy of Shakspeare by the happy figure which seems 
to adumbrate Magendie's discovery of to-day, in poetry 
written three hundred years ago ? 

* The reader who wishes to pursue this subject farther, will find 
it expounded, in connexion with a large body of collateral facts, in 
my work entitled The Nervous System and its Functions. Parker, 
West Strand: 1842. 



TRANCE. 93 

" Within the hollow crown, 
That rounds the mortal temples of a king, 
Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits 
Mocking his state, and grinning at his pomp * 
Allowing him a breath, a little hour, 
To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks; 
Infusing him with self and vain conceits, 
As if the flesh that walls about our life 
Were brass impregnable. Till, humoured thus, 
He comes at last, and, with a little pin, 
Bores through his castle wall — and farewell king!" 

To return to our argument, Are the sentiments and 
higher faculties of the mind suspended during sleep ? 
Certainly not, if dreaming be a part of natural sleep, as 
I hold it to be. For there are some who dream always ; 
others, who say they seldom dream ; others, who disavow 
dreaming at all. But the simplest view of these three 
cases is to suppose that in sleep all persons always dream, 
but that all do not remember their dreams. This im- 
puted forgetfulness is not surprising, considering the im- 
portance of the attention to memory, and that in sleep 
the attention is suspended. Ordinary dreams present 
one remarkable feature; nothing in them appears won- 
derful. We meet and converse with friends long dead ; 
the improbability of the event never crosses our minds. 
One sees a horse galloping by, and calls after it as one's 
friend — Mr. so-and-so. We fly with agreeable facility, 
and explain to an admiring circle how we manage it. 
Every absurdity passes unchallenged. The attention is 
off duty. It is important to remark that there is nothing 
in common dreams to interfere with the purpose of sleep, 
which is repose. The cares and interests of our waking 
life never recur to us ; or, if they do, are not recognised 
as our own. The faculties are not really energizing; 
9 



94 TKANCE. 

their seeming exercise is sport ; they are unharnessed, 
and are gambolling and rolling in idle relaxation. That 
is their refreshment. 

The attention alone slumbers ; or, through some slight 
organic change, it is unlinked from the other faculties, 
and they are put out of gear. This is the basis of sleep. 
The faculties are all in their places ; but the attention is 
off duty; itself asleep, or indolently keeping watch of 
time alone. 

In contrast with this picture of the sleeping and 
waking states, of the alternation of which our mental life 
consists, I have now to hold up to view*another concep- 
tion, resembling it, but different, vague, imposing, of gi- 
gantic proportions, the monstrous double of the first — 
like the mocking spectre of the Hartz, which yet is but 
your own shadow cast by the level sunbeams on the 
morning mist. 

To answer to this conception, there is more than the 
ideal entity made up "of the different forms of trance. 
For although trance may occur as a single sleep-like fit 
of moderate duration, yet it more frequently recurs — 
often periodically, dividing the night or day with com- 
mon sleep or common waking; or it may be persistent 
for days and weeks — in which case, if it generally main- 
tain one character, it is vet liable to have wakings of its 
own. 

Then the first division of trance is into trance-sleep 
and trance-waking. In extreme cases it is easy to tell 
trance-sleep from common sleep, trance-waking from 
common waking ; but there are varieties with less pro- 
minent features, in which it is difficult, at first, to say 
whether the patient is entranced at all. 

There is, upon the whole, more alliance between sleep 



TRANCE. 95 

nnd trance, than between waking and trance. Or, in a 
large class of cases, the patient falls into trance when 
asleep. It is a cognate phenomenon to this that the 
common initiatory stage of trance is a trance-sleep. 

Trance is of more frequent occurrence among the 
young than among the middle-aged or old people. It 
occurs more frequently among young women than among 
young men. In other words, the liability to trance is in 
proportion to delicacy of organization, and higher nervous 
susceptibility. 

But what is trance ? The question will be best 
answered by exhibiting its several phases. In the mean 
time, it may be laid down that the basis of trance is the 
supervention of the abnormal relation of the mind and 
nervous system. In almost all its forms it is easy to 
show that some of the mental functions are no longer lo- 
cated in their pristine organs. The most ordinary 
change is the departure of common sensation from the 
organ of touch. Next, sight leaves the organs of vision. 
To make up for these desertions, if the patient wake in 
trance, either the same senses re-appear elsewhere, or 
some unaccountable mode of general perception manifests 
itself. 

A strict alliance exists between trance and the whole 
family of spasms. Most of them are exclusively deve- 
loped in connexion with it ; all are liable to be combined 
with it; they are all capable of being excited by the 
same influences which produce trance; so they often occur 
vicariously, or alternate ^ith trance. One kind is cata- 
lepsy; the body motionless, statue-like, but the tone of 
spasm maintained low, so that you may arrange the sta- 
tue in what attitude you will, and it preserves it. A se- 
cond is catochus, like the preceding, but with a higher 



96 TRANCE. 

power of spasm, so that the joints are rigidly fixed; and 
if you overcome one for a moment with superior strength, 
being let go, it flies back to where it was. A third, 
partial spasm of equal rigidity, arching the body forwards 
or backwards or laterally, or fixing one limb or more. 
The fourth, clonic spasm, for instance, the contortions 
and convulsive struggles of epilepsy. The fifth, an im- 
pulse to rapid and varied muscular actions, nearly 
equalling convulsions in violence, but combined so as to 
travesty ordinary voluntary motion ; this is the dance of 
St. Veitz, which took its name from an epidemic outbreak 
in Germany in the thirteenth century, that was supposed 
to be cured by the interposition of the saint ; then per- 
sons of all classes were seized in groups in public with a 
fury of kicking, shuffling, dancing together, till they 
dropt. Now, the same agency is manifested either in a 
violent rush, and disposition to climb w T ith inconceivable 
agility and precision ; or alternately to twist the features, 
roll the neck, and jerk and swing the limbs even to the 
extent of dislocating them. 

The causes of trance are mostly mental. Trance ap- 
pears to be contagious. Viewed medically, it is seldom 
directly dangerous. It is a product of over-excitability, 
which time blunts. The disposition to trance is seldom 
manifested beyond a few months, or, at most, two or 
three years. For epilepsy is not a form of trance ; it is, 
however, a mixed mental and spasmodic seizure, much al- 
lied to trance. Those who suffer from its attacks are 
found to be among the most susceptible of induced 
trance. 

But let me again ask, what then is trance ? 

Trance is a peculiar mental seizure, (totally distinct 
from insanity, with which again, however, it may be 



TRANCE. 97 

combined,) the patient taken with which appears pro- 
foundly absorbed or rapt, and as if lost more or less com- 
pletely to surrounding objects or impressions, or at all 
events to the ordinary mode of perceiving them ; he is 
likewise more or less entirely lost to his former recol- 
lections. The mental seizures may or may not occur 
simultaneously or alternately with spasmodic seizures of 
any and every character. 

This definition of trance conveys, I am afraid, no very 
exact or distinct picture ; but it is the definition of a 
genus, and a genus is necessarily an abstraction. How- 
ever, it gives the features essential to all the forms of 
trance. A true general notion of trance can, indeed, 
only be realized by studying in detail each of the forms 
it includes. These are separated by the broadest co- 
lours. In the one extreme an entranced person appears 
dead, and no sign of life is recognisable in him ; in the 
opposite, he appears to be much as usual, and perfectly 
impressible by any thing around him, so that it de- 
mands careful observation to establish that he is not sim- 
ply awake. 

Then trance presents no fewer than five specific forms, 
distinguished each from the other by clear characters, 
their essential identity being established by each at 
times passing into either of the others. The terms by 
which I propose to designate the five primary forms 
of trance are — Death-trance, Trance-coma, Initiatory 
Trance, Half-waking-trance, Waking-trance. The five, 
however, admit, as I have before said, of being arranged 
in two groups: the first three forms enumerated consti- 
tuting varieties of trance-sleep ; the two latter consti- 
tuting varieties of waking-trance. The next letter will 

9* 



98 TRANCE SLEEP. 

treat of the first group ; the two following will treat of the 
two varieties of the second. 

I have observed that the causes of trance are for the 
most part mental impressions ; but it will be found that 
certain physical influences may produce the same results. 
The causes of trance, whether mental or physical, de- 
serve again to be regarded in three lights. Either they 
have operated blindly and fortuitously, or they have been 
resorted to and used as agents to produce some vague 
and imperfectly understood result, or they have been 
skilfully and intelligently directed to bring out the exact 
phenomena which have followed. It is with trance su- 
pervening in the two former ways that I alone propose 
at present to deal ; that is to say, with trance as it was 
imperfectly known as an agent in superstition, or as a 
rare and marvellous form of nervous disease. Of the 
third case of trance, as it may be artificially induced, I 
shall afterwards and finally speak. 



LETTER VI. 

Trance-Sleep — The phenomena of trance divided into those of 
trance-sleep, and those of trance-waking — Trance-sleep presents 
three forms; trance-waking two. The three forms of trance- 
sleep described : viz. ? death-trance, trance-coma, simple or initia- 
tory trance. 

Trance, then, it appears, is a peculiar mental seizure 
liable to supervene in persons of an irritable nervous 
system, either after mental excitement or in deranged 
bodily health. The seizure may last for a few hours, or 



TRANCE SLEEP. 99 

a few days, or for weeks, or years ; and is liable to recur 
at regular or irregular intervals. 

Trance again, it has been observed, has phases corre- 
sponding with the sleeping and waking of our natural 
state. And as natural sleep presents three varieties — 
the profound and heavy sleep of extreme exhaustion, or- 
dinary deep sleep, and the light slumber of the wakeful 
and the anxious, so trance-sleep is three-fold likewise. 
But as in trance every thing is magnified, the differences 
between the three states are greater, and the phenomena 
of each more bold and striking. 

Two conditions are common, however, to every phase 
of trance-sleep; these are, the occurrence of complete 
insensibility, and that of vivid and coherent dreams. 

The insensibility is so absolute that the most powerful 
stimulants are insufficient to rouse the patient. An 
electric shock, a surgical operation, the amputation even 
of a limb, are seemingly unfelt. 

The dreams of trance-sleep have a character of their 
own. It is to be remarked, that in the dreams of ordi- 
nary sleep the ideas are commonly an incoherent jumble; 
and that, if they happen to refer to passing events, they 
commonly reverse their features. The attention seems 
to be slumbering. Thus Sir George Back told me, that 
in the privations which he encountered in Sir John 
Franklin's first expedition, when in fact he was starving, 
he uniformly dreamed of plentiful repasts. But in the 
dreams of trance-sleep, on the contrary, the impressions 
of the waking thoughts, the exciting ideas themselves, 
which have caused the supervention of trance, are rea- 
lized and carried out in a consecutive train of imaginary 
action. They are, accordingly, upon the patient's awak- 
ing, accurately remembered by him ; and that with such 



100 TRANCE SLEEP. 

force and distinctness, that if he be a fanatic or supersti- 
tiously inclined, he very likely falls into the belief that 
the occurrences he dreamed of actually took place in his 
presence. A temperate fanatic goes no further, under 
such circumstances, than to assert that he has had a vi- 
sion. The term is so good a one, that it appears to me 
worth retaining, in a philosophical sense, for the present 
exigency. I propose to restrict the term vision to the 
dreams of persons in trance-sleep. 
Then of the three different forms of trance-sleep, 
I. Death-trance. — Death-trance is the image of death. 
The heart does not act ; the breathing is suspended ; the 
body is motionless; not the slightest outward sign of 
sensibility or consciousness can be detected. The tem- 
perature of the body falls. The entranced person has 
the appearance of a corpse from which life has recently 
departed. The joints are commonly relaxed, and the 
whole frame pliable ; but it is likely that spasmodic rigi- 
dity forms an occasional adjunct of this strange condi- 
tion. So the only means of knowing whether life be still 
present is to wait the event. The body is to be kept in 
a warm room, for the double purpose of promoting de- 
composition if it be dead, and of preserving in it the 
vital spark if it still linger ; and it should be constantly 
watched. But should every recently dead body be made 
the subject of similar care ? it is natural to ask. There 
are, of course, many cases where such care is positively 
unnecessary — such, for instance, as death following great 
lesions of vital organs ; and in the great majority of cases 
of seeming death, the bare possibility of the persistence 
of life hardly remains. Still it is better to err on the 
safe side. And although in England, from the higher 
tone of moral feeling, and from the respect shown to the 



TRANCE SLEEP. 101 

remains of the dead, the danger of being interred alive 
is inconsiderable, still the danger certainly exists to a 
very considerable degree of being opened alive by order 
of a zealous coroner. But for the illustration of this 
danger, and examples of the circumstances under which 
death-trance has been known to occur, and of its usual 
features, I refer the reader back to the second Letter of 
this series. Let me, however, add, that it is not impro- 
bable that, by means of persons susceptible of the influ- 
ence of Od, or of persons in induced waking-trance, the 
question could be at once decided whether a seeming 
corpse were really dead. 

In England, during the last epidemic visitation of cho- 
lera, several cases of death-trance occurred, in which the 
patient, who was on the point of being buried, fortunate- 
ly awoke in time to be saved. Death-trance, it is proba- 
ble, is much more frequently produced by spasmodic and 
nervous illness than by mental causes : it has followed 
fever; it has frequently attended parturition. In this 
respect it differs from other forms of trance-sleep, which 
mostly, when spontaneous, supervene upon mental im- 
pressions. 

The only feature of death-trance which it remains for 
me to exemplify is the occurrence in it of visions. Per- 
haps the following may be taken as an instance: — 

Henry Engelbrecht, as we learn in a pamphlet pub- 
lished by him in 1639, after an ascetic life, during which 
he had experienced sensorial illusions, fell into the deep- 
est form of trance, which he thus describes : In the year 
1623, exhausted by intense mental excitement of a reli- 
gious kind, and by abstinence from food, after hearing a 
sermon which strongly affected him, he felt as if he could 
combat no longer; so he gave in and took to his bed. 



102 TRANCE SLEEP. 

There he lay a week, without tasting any thing but the 
bread and wine of the sacrament. On the eighth day, 
he thought he fell into the death-struggle. Death 
seemed to invade him from below upwards. His body 
became to his feelings rigid; his hands and feet insensi- 
ble ; his tongue and lips incapable of motion ; gradually 
his sight failed him. But he still heard the laments and 
consultations of those around him. This gradual demise 
lasted from mid-day till eleven at night, when he heard 
the watchmen. Then he wholly lost sensibility to out- 
ward impressions. But an elaborate vision of immense 
detail began ; the theme of which was, that he was first 
carried down to hell, and looked into the place of tor- 
ment; from whence, after a time, quicker than an arrow 
he was borne to Paradise. In these abodes of suffering 
and happiness, he saw and heard and smelt things un- 
speakable. These scenes, though long in apprehension, 
were short in time; for he came enough to himself, by 
twelve o'clock, again to hear the watchmen. It took him 
another twelve hours to come round entirely. His hear- 
ing was first restored; then his sight; feeling and power 
of motion followed; as soon as he could move his limbs, 
he rose. He felt himself stronger than before the 
trance. 

II. Trance-coma. — The appearance of a person in 
trance-coma is that of one in profound sleep. The 
breathing is regular, but extremely gentle ; the action 
of the heart the same ; the frame lies completely relaxed 
and flexible, and, when raised, falls in any posture, like 
the body of one just dead, as its weight determines. 
The bodily temperature is natural. The condition is 
distinguishable from common sleep by the total insensi- 
bility of the entranced person to all ordinary stimulants: 



TRAKCE SLEKP. 103 

besides, the pupil of the eye, instead of being contract- 
ed to a minute aperture, as it is in common sleep, is 
usually dilated; at all events it is not contracted, and it 
is fixed. 

Perhaps the commonest cause of trance-coma is hyste- 
ria; or by hysteria is meant a highly irritable state of 
the nervous system, most commonly met with in young 
unmarried women. There seems to be present, as its 
proximate cause, an excessive nervous vitality; and that 
excess, in its simplest manifestation, breaks out in fits of 
sobbing and crying, alternating often with laughter — a 
physical excitement of the system which yet fatigues and 
distresses the patient's mind, who cannot resist the un- 
accountable impulses. It is at the close of such a pa- 
roxysm of hysteria that trance-coma of a few^ hours' du- 
ration not unfrequently supervenes. It is almost a na- 
tural repose after the preceding stage of excitement. 
Hysteria, besides giving origin to a peculiar class of local 
ailments, is further the fruitful mother of most varieties 
of trance. 

Trance-coma sometimes supervenes on fever, and the 
patient lies for hours or clays on the seeming verge of 
death. I have known it ensue after mesmeric practice 
carried to an imprudent excess. Religious mental excite- 
ment will brinn; it on. In the following instance, which 
I quote from the Rev. George Sandby's sensible and use- 
ful work on Mesmerism, the state of trance so super- 
vening was probably trance-coma : " George Fox, the ce- 
lebrated father of Quakerism, at one period lay in a trance 
for fourteen days, and people came to stare and won- 
der at him. He had the appearance of a dead man; 
but his sleep was full of divine visions of beauty and 

o 0I 7- 



10 -A TRANCE SLEEP. 

Here is another instance, wherein the prevailing state 
must have been trance-coma. I quote it from the letter 
of an intelligent friend. It will help the reader to 
realize the general conception I wish to raise in his 
mind : — 

"I heard," says my correspondent, " through the 
newspapers, of a case of trance ten miles from this place, 
and immediately rode to the village to verify it, and gain 
information about it. With some difficulty I persuaded 
the mother to allow me to see the entranced girl. Her 
name is Ann Cromer; she is daughter of a mason at 
Faringdon Gournay, ten miles from Bristol. She was 
lying in a state of general but not total suspension of the 
symptoms of life. Her breathing was perceptible by the 
heaving of the chest, and at times she had uttered low 
groans. Her jaws are locked, and she is incapable of 
the slightest movement, so as to create no other wrinkle 
in her bed-clothes but such as a dead weight would pro- 
duce. When I saw her, she had not been moved for a 
week. Upon one occasion, when asked to show, by the 
pressure of the hand, if she felt any pain, a slight squeeze 
was perceptible. A very small portion of fluid is admi- 
nistered as food from time to time, but I neglected to 
discover how. Her hands are warm, and her mother 
thinks that she is conscious. Three days before I saw 
her, she spoke (incoherently) for the first time since her 
trance commenced. She repeated the Lord's prayer, and 
asked for an aunt; but she rapidly relapsed, and her 
locked-jaw returned. Her mother considered this revival 
a sign of approaching death. The most remarkable fea- 
ture in the case is the length of time that the girl has 
remained entranced. She was twelve years old when the 
fit supervened, and the locked-jaw followed in sixteen 



TRANCE SLEEP. 105 

-weeks afterwards. She is now twenty-five years of age, 
and will thus, in a month, if alive, have been in this con- 
dition for thirteen years. In the mean while she has 
grown from a child to a woman, though her countenance 
retains all the appearance of her former age. She is 
little else than skin and bone, except her cheeks, which 
are puffy. She is as pale as a corpse, and her eyes are 
sunk deep in the sockets." 

III. Simple or Initiatory Trance. — In the lightest form 
of trance-sleep, the patient, though perfectly insensible 
to ordinary impressions, is not necessarily recumbent. 
If he is sitting when taken, he continues sitting; if pre- 
viously lying, he will sometimes raise himself up when 
entranced. His joints are neither relaxed nor rigid: if 
you raise his arm, or bend the elbow, you experience a 
little resistance; and immediately after, probably, the 
limb is restored to its former posture. Such is the ordi- 
nary degree of muscular tone present ; but either cata- 
leptic immobility, or catochus, may accidentally co-exist 
with initiatory trance. The patient may even remain 
standing rapt in his trance. I quote the following classic 
instance from the Edinburgh Review: — " There is a won- 
derful story told of Socrates. Being in military service 
in the expedition to Potidea, he is reported to have stood 
for twenty-four hours before the camp, rooted to the 
same spot and absorbed in deep thought, his arms folded 
and his eyes fixed upon one object, as if his soul were 
absent from his body." 

It is not my intention to dwell more on this form of 
trance at present. Various cases, exemplifying its va- 
rieties, will be found in the letter on Religious Delusions. 
It is the commonest product of fanatical excitement. I 
have called this form initiatory trance, because, in day- 
10 



106 HALF-WAKIXG TRANCE 



somnambulism, it always precedes the half-waking which 
constitutes that state ; and because it is the state into 
which mesmeric manipulators ordinarily first plunge the 
patient. Out of this initiatory state I have seen the 
patient thrown into trance-coma; but the ordinary pro- 
gress of the experiment is to conduct him in the other 
direction — that is, towards trance-waking. 



LETTER VII. 

Half-waking Trance or Somnambulism. — The same thing with ordi- 
nary sleep-walking — Its characteristic feature, the acting of a 
dream — Cases, and disquisition. 

A curious fate somnambulism has had. While other 
forms of trance have been either rejected as fictions, or 
converted to the use of superstition, somnambulism with 
all its wonders, being at once undeniable and familiar, 
has been simply taken for granted. While her sisters 
have been exalted into mystical phenomena, and play 
parts in history, somnambulism has had no temple raised 
to her, has had no fear-worship, at the highest has been 
promoted to figure in an opera. Of a quiet and homely 
nature, she has moved about the house, not like a visit- 
ing demon, but as a maid of all work. To the public the 
phenomenon has presented no more interest than a soap- 
bubble, or the fall of an apple. 

Somnambulism, as the term is used in England, exact- 
ly comprehends all the phenomena of half-waking trance.* 

* Many writers employ the term somnambulism to denote indis- 
criminately several forms of trance, or trance in general. I prefer 



OR SOMNAMBULISM. 107 

The seizure mostly comes on during common sleep. But 
it may supervene in the daytime ; in which case the pa- 
tient first falls into the lightest form of trance-sleep. 
After a little, still lost to things around him, he manifests 
one or more of three impulses: one, to speak, but cohe- 
rently and to a purpose; a second, to dress, rise, and 
leave his room with an evident intention of going some- 
whither; a third, to practise some habitual mechanical 
employment. In each case he appears to be pursuing 
the thread of a dream. If he speaks, it is a connected 
discourse to some end. If he goes out to walk, it is to 
a spot he contemplates visiting; his general turn is to 
climb ascents, hills, or the roofs of houses : in the latter 
case he sometimes examines if the tiles are secure before 
he steps on them. If he pursues a customary occupation, 
whether it be cleaning harness or writing music, he 
finishes his work before he leaves it. He is acting a 
dream, which is connected and sustained. The attention 
is keenly awake in this dream, and favours its accom- 
plishment to the utmost. In the mean time the somnam- 
bulist appears to be insensible to ordinary impressions, 
and to take no cognisance of what is going on around 
him — a light maybe held so close to his eyes as to singe 
his eyebrows without his noticing it — he seems neither 
to hear nor to taste — the eyelids are generally closed, 
otherwise the eyes are fixed and vacant. Nevertheless 
he possesses some means of recognising the objects which 
are implicated in his dream ; he perceives their place, and 
walks among them with perfect precision. Let me nar- 
rate some instances. The first, one of day-somnambu- 
lism, exemplifies, at the same time, the transitions to full 

restricting it to the peculiar class of cases commonly known as sleep- 
walking. 



108 HALF-WAKING TRANCE, 

waking, which manifest themselves occasionally in the 
talking form of the trance. The case is from the Acta 
Vratisv. ann. 1722. 

A girl, seventeen years of age, was used to fall into a 
kind of sleep in the afternoon, in which it was supposed, 
from her expression of countenance and her gestures, 
that she was engaged in dreams that interested her. 
(She was then in light trance-sleep, initiatory trance.) 
After some days she began to speak when in this state. 
Then if those present addressed remarks to her, she re- 
plied very sensibly, but then fell back into her dream 
discourse, which turned principally upon religious and 
moral topics, and was directed to warn her friends how 
a female should live — Christianly, well governed, and so 
as to incur no reproach. When she sang, which often 
happened, she heard herself accompanied by an imaginary 
violin or piano, and would take up and continue the ac- 
companiment upon an instrument herself. She sewed, 
did knitting, and the like. She imagined, on one occa- 
sion, that she wrote a letter upon a napkin, which she 
folded for the post. Upon waking, she had not the 
slightest recollection of any thing that had passed. After 
a few months she recovered. 

The following case is from the Hamburgh Zeitschrift 
fur die gesammte Medicin, 1848 : — 

A lad of eleven years of age, at school at Tarbes, was 
surprised several mornings running at finding himself 
dressed in bed, though he had undressed himself overnight. 
Then on the 3d of May he was seen by a neighbour, 
soon after three in the morning, to go out dressed with 
his cloak and hat on. She called to him, but he did not 
answer; and she concluded that he was going to Bag- 
neres with his father. In fact that was the road he took ; 



OR SOMNAMBULISM. 109 

and he was afterwards seen by several persons near 
Bagneres, trudging after a carriage. It rained hard; 
and they were surprised to see so young a lad travelling 
at so early an hour ; but they thought he probably belonged 
to the people in the carriage. He reached Bagneres at 
half past five, having done the distance of five post leagues 
in two hours and a quarter. He went to the hotel of M. 
Lafaro'ue, which he had on a former occasion visited with 
his father, and entered the eating-room. The people of 
the hotel addressed him. He told them that he had come 
with his father in a post-chaise, and that they would find 
his father in the yard busied with the carriage. M. La- 
fargue went out to look for him. In the mean time the 
people of the house observed that the boy's remarks were 
incoherent ; so they took off his cloak and cap, when 
they found that his eyelids were closed, and that he was 
fast asleep. They led him towards the stove, took off 
his wet things and his boots without awakening him ; but 
before they had completely undressed him to put him to 
bed he awoke. The impressions of his dream did not 
desert him. He complained of having had a bad night; 
and asked for his father. They told him his father had 
been obliged to set off again immediately. They put him 
to bed, and he slept. They sent intelligence to his fa- 
ther, who came to Bagneres. The boy believed, and be- 
lieves still, that he came to Bagneres with his father in 
a chaise that was driven very slowly. Being asked what 
he had seen on the road, he described having passed a 
number of monks and priests in procession. He said there 
was one good-looking young man who did not leave him, 
but was always saying, "Good day, Joseph; Adieu, Jo- 
seph. " He said that what had most annoyed him was 
the burning heat of the sun, which was so intense that 

10* 



110 HALF- WAKING TRANCE, 

he had been obliged to wrap himself up in his cloak; that 
he could not bear its bright light. 

The following case of somnambulism, allied with St. 
Vietz's dance, is given by Lord Monboddo : — 

The patient, about sixteen years of age, used to be 
commonly taken in the morning a few hours after rising. 
The approach of the seizure was announced by a sense 
of weight in the head and drowsiness, which quickly ter- 
minated in sleep, (trance-sleep,) in which her eyes were 
fast shut. She described a feeling beginning in the feet, 
creeping like a gradual chill higher and higher, till it 
reached the heart, when consciousness left her. Being 
in this state, she sprang from her seat about the room, 
over tables and chairs, with astonishing agility. Then, 
if she succeeded in getting out of the house, she ran, at 
a pace with which her elder brother could hardly keep 
up, to a particular spot in the neighbourhood, taking the 
directest but the roughest path. If she could not manage 
otherwise, she got over the garden wall, with astonishing 
rapidity and precision of movement. Her eyelids were 
all the time fast closed. The impulse to visit this spot 
she was often conscious of during the approach of the 
paroxysm, and afterwards she sometimes thought that 
she had dreamed of going thither. Towards the termi- 
nation of her indisposition, she dreamed that the water 
of a neighbouring spring would do her good, and she 
drank much of it. One time they tried to cheat her by 
giving her water from another spring, but she immedi- 
ately detected the difference. Near the end, she foretold 
that she would have three paroxysms more, and then be 
well ; and so it proved. 

The next case is from a communication by M. Pigatti, 
published in the July number of the Journal Encyclo- 



OR SOMNAMBULISM. Ill 

■pedique of the year 1662. The subject was a servant of 
the name of Negretti, in the household of the Marquis 
Sale. 

In the evening Negretti would seat himself in a chair 
in the ante-room, when he commonly fell asleep, and would 
sleep quietly for a quarter of an hour. He then righted 
himself in his chair so as to sit up. Then he sat some 
time without motion, looking as if he saw something. 
Then he rose and walked about the room. On one occa- 
sion he drew out his snuff-box, and would have taken a 
pinch, but there was little in it ; whereupon he walked up 
to an empty chair, and, addressing by name a cavalier, 
whom he supposed to be sitting in it, asked him for a 
pinch. One of those who were watching the scene, here 
held towards him an open box, from which he took snuff. 
Afterward he fell into the posture of a person who listens ; 
he seemed to think that he heard an order, and thereupon 
hastened with a wax candle in his hand to a spot where 
a light usually stood. As soon as he imagined that he 
had lit the candle, he walked with it in the proper man- 
ner, through the salle, down the steps, turning and waiting 
from time to time as if he were lighting some one down. 
Arrived at the door he placed himself sideways, in order 
to let the imaginary persons pass ; and he bowed as he 
let them out. He then extinguished the light, returned 
up stairs, and sat himself down again in his place, to play 
the same farce once or twice over again the same evening. 
When in this condition he would lay the table-cloth, place 
the chairs, which he sometimes brought from a distant 
room, opening and shutting the doors as he went with 
exactness ; would take decanters from the buffet, fill them 
with water at the spring, put them down on a waiter, and 
so on. All the objects that were concerned in these 



112 HALF- WAKING TRANCE, 

operations he distinguished, when they were before htm, 
with the same precision and certainty as if he had been 
in the full use of his senses. Otherwise he seemed to ob- 
serve nothing; so, on one occasion in passing a table, he 
threw down a waiter with two decanters upon it, which 
fell and broke without attracting his attention. The do- 
minant idea had entire possession of him. He would 
prepare a salad with correctness, and sit down and eat 
it. If they changed it, the trick escaped his notice. In 
this manner he would go on eating cabbage, or even 
pieces of cake, without observing the difference. The 
taste he enjoyed was imaginary, the sense was shut. On 
another occasion, when he asked for wine they gave him 
water, which he drank for wine, and remarked that his 
stomach felt the better for it. On a fellow-servant touch- 
his legs with a stick, the idea arose in his mind that it 
was a dog, and he scolded to drive it away ; but the ser- 
vant continuing his game, Negretti took a whip to beat 
the dog. The servant drew back, when Negretti began 
whistling and coaxing to get the dog near him; so they 
threw a muff against his legs, which he belaboured 
soundly. 

M. Pigatti watched these proceedings with great atten- 
tion, and convinced himself by many experiments that 
Negretti did not use his ordinary senses. He did not 
hear the loudest sound when it lay out of the circle of his 
dream-ideas. If a light was held close to his eyes, near 
enough to singe his eyebrows, he did not appear to be 
aware of it. He seemed to feel nothing when they in- 
serted a feather into his nostrils. 

Perhaps the most interesting case of somnambulism on 
record is that of a young ecclesiastic, the narrative of 
which, from the immediate communication of the Arch- 



OR SOMNAMBULISM. 113 

bishop of Bordeaux, is given under the head of Somnam- 
bulism, in the French Encyclopedia. 

This young ecclesiastic, when the archbishop was at the 
same seminary, used to rise every night, and write out 
either sermons or pieces of music. To study his condi- 
tion, the archbishop betook himself several nights conse- 
cutively to the chamber of the young man, where he made 
the following observations: — 

The young man used to rise, take paper, and begin to 
write. Before writing music, he would take a stick and 
rule the lines with it. He wrote the notes, together with 
the words corresponding to them, with perfect correct- 
ness; or when he had written the words too wide, he al- 
tered them. The notes that were to be black he filled 
in after he had written the whole. After completing a 
sermon, he would read it aloud from beginning to end. 
If any passage displeased him, he erased it, and wrote 
the amended passage correctly over the other. On one 
occasion he had substituted the word "adorable" for 
"divin ;" but he did not omit to alter the preceding "ce" 
into a cet," by adding the letter "t" with exact precision 
to the word first written. To ascertain whether he used 
his eyes, the archbishop interposed a sheet of pasteboard 
between the writing and his face. The somnambulist 
took not the least notice, but went on writing as before. 
The limitation of his perceptions to what he was thinking 
about was very curious. A bit of aniseed cake, that he 
had sought for, he ate approvingly; but when, on another 
occasion, a piece of the same cake was put into his mouth, 
he spat it out without observation. The following in- 
stance of the dependence of his perceptions upon his pre- 
conceived ideas is truly wonderful. It is to be observed 
that he always knew when his pen had ink in it. Like- 



114 HALF-WAKING TRANCE, 

wise, if they adroitly changed his papers when he was 
writing, he knew it, if the sheet substituted was of a dif- 
ferent size from the former, and he appeared embarrassed 
in that case. But if the fresh sheet of paper, which was 
substituted for that written on, was exactly of the same 
size with it, he appeared not to be aware of the change. 
And he would continue to read off his composition from 
the blank sheet of paper, as fluently as when the manu- 
script lay before him ; nay more, he would continue his 
corrections, and introduce an amended passage, writing 
it upon exactly the place in the blank sheet corresponding 
with that which it would have occupied on the written 
page. — Such are the feats of somnambulists. 

At first sight, the phenomena thus exemplified appear 
strange and unintelligible enough. But upon a careful 
consideration of them, much of the marvellous disappears. 
The most curious features seem, in the end, to be really 
the least deserving of wonder. The simplest of the phe- 
nomena are alone the inexplicable ones. 

I have, however, advanced this group of cases as in- 
stances of trance, in which, therefore, *I assume that an 
abnormal relation exists between the mind and body, in 
which the organs of sensation are partially or entirely 
deserted by their functions, and in which new perceptive 
powers manifest themselves. Then an opponent might 
argue ; — 

" I know nothing about your trance. What I see is 
first a person asleep, then the same person half or par- 
tially awake, occupied with a dream or vivid conception 
of an action; which, being partially awake, and therefore 
having partially resumed his power of attention, he is 
capable of realizing. He appears to be insensible ; but 
this may be deceptive ; for he is still asleep, and therefore 






Oil SOMNAMBULISM. 115 

notices not things around him ; and his attention is partly 
still suspended as in sleep, partly more useless still for 
eneral purposes through intent preoccupation. 

He goes about the house in his rapt state, and finds 
his way perfectly ; but the house is familiar to him ; every 
thing in it is distinctly before his conception ; he has, too, 
the advantage of perfect confidence ; and besides, being 
partially awake, he partially, vaguely perhaps, uses cus- 
tomary sensations in reference to the objects which his 
dream contemplates his meeting. 

"The ecclesiastic, indeed, seems at first to see through 
a sheet of pasteboard. But the concluding interesting 
fact in his case shows that he really used his perception 
only to identify the size and place of the sheet of paper. 
His writing upon it was the mechanical transcript of an 
act of mental penmanship. The corrections fell into the 
right places upon the paper, owing to the fidelity with 
which he retained the mental picture. The clearness and 
vividness of the picture, again, is not so very surprising, 
when it is considered that the attention was wholly and 
exclusively concentrated on that one operation. " 

The observations of my imaginary opponent might suf- 
ficiently account for the more striking phenomena in the 
preceding cases, and are doubtless near the truth as re- 
gards the principal parts of the young ecclesiastic's per- 
formance. Still there remains the commoner instance 
of the lad going about with precision with his eyes shut. 
I see no mode of accounting for that on common principles. 

And besides, it may be presumed that, if more decisive 
experiments as to their sensibility had been made upon 
all these subjects, they would have been found really with- 
out sight and feeling. For, in general character, persons 
in somnambulism exactly resemble other entranced per- 



116 TRANCE-WAKING 

sons, who certainly feel nothing; for they have borne the 
most painful surgical operations without the smallest in- 
dication of suffering. So I have little doubt that the in- 
sensibility, which the observers imputed to the somnam- 
bulists, really existed, although they may have failed to 
establish the fact by positive evidence. 

The question as to the development of a new power of 
perception, such as I conjecture the lad used in his walk 
from Tarbes to Bagneres, will be found to be resolved, 
or, at any rate, to be attended with no theoretical diffi- 
culties, when the performances of full-waking in trance, 
which I propose to describe in the next letter, shall have 
been laid before the reader. 



LETTER VIII. 

Trance-waking. — Instances of its spontaneous occurrence in the form 
of catalepsy — Analysis of catalepsy — -Its three elements: double 
consciousness, or pure waking-trance ; the spasmodic seizure • the 
new mental powers displayed— Cases exemplifying catalepsy — 
Other cases unattended with spasm, but of spontaneous occur- 
rence, in which new mental powers were manifested — Oracles of 
antiquity — Animal instinct— -Intuition. 

Under this head are contained the most marvellous 
phenomena which ever came as a group of facts in natu- 
ral philosophy before the world; and they are reaching 
that stage towards general reception when their effect is 
most vivid and striking. Five-and-twenty years ago no 
one in England dreamed of believing them, although the 
same positive evidence of their genuineness then existed 
as now. Five-and-twenty years hence the same facts will 



AND CATALEPSY. 117 

bo matters of familiar knowledge. It is just at the pre- 
sent moment (or am I anticipating the march of opinion 
by half a century?) that their difference, and distinctness, 
and abhorrence even, from our previous conceptions are 
most intensely felt; and that the powers which they pro- 
mise eventually to place within human control excite our 
irrepressible wonder. 

I shall narrate the facts which loom so large in the 
dawning light, very simply and briefly, as they are mani- 
fested in catalepsy. 

An uninformed person being in the room with a cataleptic 
patient, would at first suppose her, putting aside the spas- 
modic affection of the body, to be simply awake in the 
ordinary way. By-and-by her new powers might or might 
not catch his observation. But a third point would cer- 
tainly escape his notice. I refer to her mental state of 
waking trance, which gives, as it were, the local colouring 
to the whole performance. 

To elucidate this element, I may avail myself of a 
sketch ready prepared by nature, tinted with the local 
colour alone— the case of simple trance-waking, unat- 
tended by fits or by any marvellous powers, as far as it 
has been yet observed, which is known to physicians 
under the name of double consciousness. 

A single fit of the disorder presents the following fea- 
tures : — The young person (for the patient is most fre- 
quently a girl) seems to lose herself for a moment or 
longer, then she recovers, and seems to be herself again. 
The intervening short period, longer at first, and by use 
rendered briefer and briefer, is a period of common ini- 
tiatory trance. When, having lost, the patient thus finds 
herself again, there is nothing in her behaviour which 
would lead a stranger to suppose her other than naturally 
11 



118 TRANCE-WAKING 

sCwake. But her friends observe that she now does every 
thing with more spirit and better than before — sings bet- 
ter, plays better, has more readiness, moves even more 
gracefully, than in her usual state. She manifests an in- 
nocent boldness and disregard of little conventionalisms, 
which impart a peculiar charm to her behaviour. Her 
mode of speaking is perhaps something altered; a super- 
numerary consonant making its undue appearance, but 
upon a regular law, in certain syllables. But the most 
striking thing is, that she has totally forgotten all that 
has passed during the morning. Inquire what her last 
recollections are, they leave off with the termination of 
her last fit of this kind ; the intervening period is for the 
present lost to her. She was in her natural state of 
waking when I introduced her to your notice ; she lost 
herself for a few seconds, found herself again ; but found 
herself not in her natural train of recollections, but in 
those of the last fit. 

These fits occur sometimes at irregular intervals, some- 
times periodically and daily. In her ordinary waking 
state, she has her chain of waking recollections. In her 
trance-waking state, she has her chain of trance-waking 
recollections. The two are kept strictly apart. Hence 
the ill-chosen term, double-consciousness. So at the oc- 
currence of her first fit, her mental existence may be said 
to have bifurcated into two separate routes, in either of 
which her being is alternately passed. It is curious to 
study, at the commencement of such a case, with how 
much knowledge derived from her past life the patient 
embarks on her trance-existence. The number of pre- 
viously realized ideas retained by different patients at the 
first fit is very various. It has happened that the memory 
of facts and persons has been so defective that the pa- 



AND CATALEPSY. 119 

tient has had to learn even to know and to love her pa- 
rents. To most of her acquaintances she is observed to 
give new names, which she uses to them in the trance- 
state alone. But her habits remain ; her usual propriety 
of conduct: the mind is singularly pure in trance. And 
she very quickly picks up former ideas, and restores for- 
mer intimacies, but on a supposed new footing. To 
complete this curious history, if the fits of trance recur 
frequently, and through some accidental circumstance are 
more and more prolonged in duration, so that most of 
her waking existence is passed in trance, it will follow 
that the trance-development of her intellect and character 
may get ahead of their development in her natural waking. 
Being told this, she may become anxious to continue al- 
ways in her entranced state, and to drop the other: and 
I knew a case in which circumstances favoured this final 
arrangement, and the patient at last retained her trance- 
recollections alone, from long continuance in that state 
having made it, as it were, her natural one. Her only 
fear was — for she had gradually learned her own mental 
history, as she expressed it to me — that some day she 
should of a sudden find herself a child again, thrown back 
to the point at which she ceased her first order of recol- 
lections. This is, indeed, a very extreme and monstrous 
case. Ordinarily, the recurrence of fits of simple trance- 
waking does not extend over a longer period than three 
or four months or half a year, after which they never re- 
appear; and her trance acquirements and feelings are 
lost to the patient's recollection for good. I will cite a 
case, as it was communicated to me by Dr. Gr. Barlow, exem- 
plifying some of the points of the preceding statement. 

" This young lady has two states of existence. During 
the time that the fit is on her, which varies from a few 



120 TRANCE-WAKING 

hours to three days, she is occasionally merry and in 
spirits ; occasionally she appears in pain, and rolls about 
in uneasiness ; but in general she seems so much herself, 
that a stranger entering the room would not remark any 
thing extraordinary: she amuses herself with reading or 
working, sometimes plays on the piano — and better than 
at other times — knows every body, and converses ration- 
ally, and makes very accurate observations on what she 
has seen and read. The fit leaves her suddenly, and she 
then forgets every thing that has passed during it, and 
imagines that she has been asleep, and sometimes that 
she has dreamed of any circumstance that has made a 
vivid impression upon her. During one of these fits she 
was reading Miss Bdgeworth's Tales, and had in the 
morning been reading a part of one of them to her mother, 
when she went for a few minutes to the window, and sud- 
denly exclaimed, " Mamma, I am quite well, my headach 
is gone." Returning to the table, she took up the open 
volume, which she had been reading five minutes before, 
and said, H What book is this?" She turned over the 
leaves, looked at the frontispiece, and replaced it on the 
table. Seven or eight hours afterwards, when the fit re- 
turned, she asked for the book, went on at the very para- 
graph where she had left off, and remembered every cir- 
cumstance of the narrative. And so it always is ; she 
reads one set of books during one state, and another 
during the other. She seems to be conscious of her state ; 
for she said one day, " Mamma, this is a novel, but I may 
safely read it ; it will not hurt my morals, for, when I am 
well, I shall not remember a word of it." 

To form a just idea of a case of catalepsy, the reader 
has to imagine such a case as I have just instanced, with 
the physical feature added, that the patient, when en- 



AND CATALEPSY. 121 

tranced, is motionless and fixed as a statue ; the spas- 
modic state, however, not confining itself closely to one 
type, but running into catochus, or into partial rigid 
spasm, or into convulsive seizures, (see Letter V.) ca- 
priciously. 

The psychical phenomena exhibited by the patient when 
thus entranced, are the following: — 

1. The organs of sensation are deserted by their natural 
sensibility. The patient neither feels with the skin, nor 
sees with the eyes, nor hears w r ith the ears, nor tastes 
with the mouth. 

2. All these senses, however, are not lost. Sight and 
hearing, if not smell and taste, reappear in some other 
part — at the pit of the stomach, for instance, or the tips 
of the fingers. 

3. The patient manifests new perceptive powers. She 
discerns objects all around her, and through any obstruc- 
tions, partitions, walls or houses, and at an indefinite 
distance. She sees her own inside, as it were, illumi- 
nated, and can tell what is wrong in the health of others. 
She reads the thoughts of others, w T hether present or at 
indefinite distances. The ordinary obstacles of space 
and matter vanish to her. So likewise that of time; she 
foresees future events. 

Such and more are the capabilities of cataleptic pa- 
tients, most of whom exhibit them all — but there is some 
caprice in their manifestation. 

I first resigned myself to the belief that such state- 
ments as the above might be true, upon being shown by 
the late Mr. Bulteel letters from an eminent provincial 
physician in the year 1838, describing phenomena of this 
description in a patient the latter was attending. In the 
spring of 1839, Mr. Bulteel told me that he had himself 

11* 



122 TKANCE-WAKING 

in the interim often seen the patient, who had allowed 
him to test in any way he pleased the reality of the fa- 
culties she possessed when entranced. As usual, in the 
hours which she passed daily in her natural state, she 
had no recollection of her extraordinary trance perfor- 
mances. The following are some of the facts, which Mr. 
Bulteel told me he had himself verified. 

When entranced, the patient's expression of counte- 
nance was slightly altered, and there was some peculiarity 
in her mode of speaking. To each of her friends she had 
given a new name, which she used only when in the state 
of trance. She could read with her skin. If she pressed 
the palm of her hand against the whole surface of a 
printed or written page deliberately, as it were, to take 
off an impression, she became acquainted verbally with 
its contents, even to the extent of criticising the type or 
the handwriting. One day, after a remark made to put 
her off her guard, a line of a folded note was pressed 
against the back of her neck ; she had read it. She called 
this sense-feeling — contact was necessary for its manifes- 
tation. But she had a general perceptive power besides. 
She used to tell that persons, whom she knew, were coming 
to the house, when they were yet at some distance. 
Persons sitting in the room with her playing chess, to 
whom her back was turned, if they made intentionally 
false moves, she would ask them what they possibly could 
do that for. 

The next three cases which I shall describe are from 
a memoir on catalepsy (1787) by Dr. Petetin, an eminent 
civil and military physician at Lyons. 

M. Petetin attended a young married lady in a sort of 
fit. She lay seemingly unconscious; when he raised her 
arm, it remained in the air where he placed it. Being 



AND CATALEPSY. 123 

put to bed, she commenced singing. To stop her, the 
doctor placed her limbs each in a different position. This 
embarrassed her considerably, but she went on singing. 
She seemed perfectly insensible. Pinching the skin, 
shouting in her ear, nothing aroused her attention. 
Then it happened that, in arranging her, the doctor's 
foot slipped; and, as he recovered himself, half leaning 
over her, he said, " How provoking we can't make her 
leave off singing!" "Ah, doctor," she cried, "don't be 
angry ! I won't sing any more," and she stopped. But 
shortly she began again ; and in vain did the doctor im- 
plore her, by the loudest entreaties, addressed to her ear, 
to keep her promise and desist. It then occurred to him 
to place himself in the same position as when she heard 
him before. He raised the bed-clothes, bent his head 
towards her stomach, and said, in a loud voice, " Do you, 
then, mean to sing for ever?" " Oh, what pain you have 
given me !" she exclaimed ; " I implore you speak lower." 
At the same time she passed her hand over the pit of 
her stomach. "In what way, then, do you hear?" said 
Dr. Petetin. " Like any one else," was the answer. 
"But I am speaking to your stomach." " Is it possi- 
ble!" she said. He then tried again whether she could 
hear with her ears, speaking even through a tube to ag- 
gravate his voice — she heard nothing. On his asking her, 
at the pit of her stomach, if she had not heard him, — 
"No," said she, "I am indeed unfortunate." 

A cognate phenomenon to the above is the conversion 
of the patient 's new sense of vision in a direction inwards. 
He looks into himself, and sees his own inside as it were 
illuminated or transfigured : that is to say, his visual 
power is turned inwards, and he sees his organs possibly 
by the Od-light they give out. 



124 TltANCE-WAKING 

A few days after the scenes just described, Dr. Pete- 
tin's patient had another attack of catalepsy. She still 
heard at the pit of her stomach, but the manner of hear- 
ing was modified. In the mean time her countenance 
expressed astonishment. Dr. Petetin inquired the cause. 
"It is not difficult/' she answered, "to explain to you 
why I look astonished. I am singing, doctor, to divert 
my attention from a sight which appals me. I see my 
inside, and the strange forms of the organs, surrounded 
with a network of light. My countenance must express 
what I feel — astonishment and fear. A physician who 
should have my complaint for a quarter of an hour would 
think himself fortunate, as nature would reveal all her 
secrets to him. If he was devoted to his profession, he 
would not, as I do, desire to be quickly well." "Do you 
see your heart ?" asked Dr. Petetin. "Yes, there it is ; 
it beats at twice, the two sides in agreement ; when the 
upper part contracts, the lower part swells, and immedi- 
ately after that contracts. The blood rushes out all lu- 
minous, and issues by two great vessels, which are but a 
little apart." 

One morning (to quote from the latter part of this 
case) the access of the fit took place, according to cus- 
tom, at eight o'clock. Petetin arrived later than usual; 
he announced himself by speaking to the fingers of the 
patient, (by which he was heard.) "You are a very lazy 
person this morning, doctor," said she. " It is true, ma- 
dam; but if you knew the reason, you would not reproach 
me." "Ah," said she, "I perceive you have had a head- 
ache for the last four hours : it will not leave you till six 
in the evening. You are right to take nothing; no hu- 
man means can prevent it running its course." "Can 
you tell me on which side is the pain?" said Petetin. 



AND-CATALEPSY. 125 

" On the right side ; it occupies the temple, the eye, the 
teeth: I warn you that it will invade the left eye, and 
that you will suffer considerably between three and four 
o'clock; at six you will be free from pain." The predic- 
tion came out literally true. " If you wish me to believe 
you, you must tell me what I hold in my hand." " I see 
through your hand an antique medal." 

Petetin inquired of his patient at what hour her own 
fit would cease: "At eleven." "And the evening ac- 
cession — when will it come on?" "At seven o'clock." 
"In that case it will be later than usual." " It is true ; 
the periods of its recurrence are going to change to so 
and so." During this conversation, the patient's counte- 
nance expressed annoyance. She then said to M. Pete- 
tin, "My uncle has just entered; he is conversing with 
my husband behind the screen; his visit will fatigue me; 
beg him to go away." The uncle, leaving, took with him 
by mistake her husband's cloak, which she perceived, and 
sent her sister-in-law to reclaim it. 

In the evening there were assembled, in the lady's 
apartment, a good number of her relations and friends. 
Petetin had, intentionally, placed a letter within his waist- 
coat, on his heart. He begged permission, on arriving, 
to wear his cloak. Scarcely had the lady, the access 
having come on, fallen into trance, when she said — "And 
how long, doctor, has it come into fashion to wear letters 
next the heart?" Petetin pretended to deny the fact: 
she insisted on her correctness ; and, raising her hands, 
designated the size, and indicated exactly the place of 
the letter. Petetin drew forth the letter, and held it, 
closed, to the fingers of the patient. " If I were not a 
discreet person," she said, "I should tell the contents; 
but to show you that I know them, they form exactly two 



126 TRANCE-WAKING 

lines and a-half of writing;" which, on opening the let- 
ter, was shown to be the fact. 

A friend of the family, who was present, took out his 
purse, and put it in Dr. Petetin's bosom, and folded his 
cloak over his chest. As soon as Petetin approached his 
patient, she told him that he had the purse, and named 
its exact contents. She then gave an inventory of the 
contents of the pockets of all present, adding some 
pointed remark when the opportunity oifered. She said 
to her sister-in-law that the most interesting thing in her 
possession was a letter; — much to her surprise, for she 
had received the letter the same evening, and had men- 
tioned it to no one. 

The patient, in the mean time, lost strength daily, and 
could take no food. The means employed failed of 
giving her relief, and it never occurred to M. Petetin to 
inquire of her how he should treat her. At length, with 
some vague idea that she suffered from too great electric 
tension of the brain, he tried, fantastically enough, the 
effect of making deep inspirations, standing close in front 
of the patient. No effect followed from this absurd pro- 
ceeding. Then he placed one hand on the forehead, the 
other on the pit of the stomach of the patient, and con- 
tinued his inspirations. The patient now opened her 
eyes ; her features lost their fixed look ; she rallied ra- 
pidly from the fit, which lasted but a few minutes instead 
of the usual period of two hours more. In eight days, 
under a pursuance of this treatment, she entirely re- 
covered from her fits, and with them ceased her extraor- 
dinary powers. But, during these eight days, her powers 
manifested a still greater extension ; she foretold what 
was going to happen to her; she discussed with astonish- 
ing subtlety, questions of mental philosophy and physic 



AND CATALEPSY. 127 

ology ; she cauglit what those around her meant to say 
before they expressed their wishes, and either did what 
they desired, or begged that they would not ask her to 
do what was beyond her strength. 

A young lady, after much alarm during a revolution- 
ary riot, fell into catalepsy. In her fits she appeared to 
hear with the pit of the stomach ; and most of the phe- 
nomena described in the preceding case were again ma- 
nifested. She improved in health, under the care of Dr. 
Petetin, up to the 29th of May, 1790, the memorable day 
when the inhabitants of Lyons expelled the wretches who 
were making sport of their fortunes, their liberties, and 
their lives. At the report of the first cannon fired, Mdlle. 

fell into violent convulsions, followed by catalepsy 

and tetanus. When in this state she discerned Petetin 
distinguishing himself under the fire of a battery; and 
she blamed him the following day for having so rashly 
exposed his life. In the progress of the complaint, 
during the attacks of catalepsy, the occurrences of which 
she exactly foresaw, she likewise predicted the bloody 
day of the 29th of September, the surrender of the city 
on the 7th of October, the entrance of the republican 
troops on the 8th, and the cruel proscriptions issued by 
the Committee of Public Safety. 

The third case given by Petetin is that of Madame de 
Saint Paul, who was attacked with catalepsy a few days 
after her marriage, in consequence of seeing her father 
fall down in a fit of apoplexy at table. The general 
features of her lucidity are the same as in the former 
cases. 1 shall, therefore, content myself with quoting 
some observations made by Dr. Prost, author of La Me- 
decine eclairee par V Observation et VAnatomie patholo- 
gique, on the authority of Dr. Foissac, to whom he com- 



128 TRANCE- WAKING 

municated them. Dr. Prost had studied this case assi- 
duously during nine months. " Her intellectual facul- 
ties," observed Dr. Prost, " acquired a great activity, and 
the richness of her fancy made itself remarked in the 
picturesque images which she threw into her descriptions. 
As she was telling her friends of an approaching attack 
of catalepsy, suddenly she exclaimed, — ' I no longer see 
or hear objects in the same manner; every thing is trans- 
parent round me, and my observation extends to incal- 
culable distances.' She designated, without an error, the 
people who were on the public promenade, whether near 
the house, or still a quarter of an hour's walk distant. 
She read the thoughts of every one who came near her; 
she marked those who were false and vicious ; and re- 
pelled the approach of stupid people, who bored her with 
their questions and aggravated her malady. 'Just as 
much as their pates excite my pity,' said she, 'do the 
heads of men of information and intelligence, all whose 
thoughts I look into, fill me with delight.' ' 

The following facts I cite corroboratively, from one of 
several cases of hysteria communicated by Dr. Delpit, 
inspecting physician of the waters at Bareges. — (Biblio- 
theque Medicale, t. lvi. p. 308.) 

Mdlle. V , aged thirteen, after seeing the cure ad- 
minister extreme unction, fainted away. There followed 
extreme disgust towards food. During eighteen days 
she neither ate nor drank ; there was no secretion ; her 
breathing remained tranquil and regular; the patient 
preserved her embonpoint and complexion. During this 
complete suspension of the functions of digestion, the 
organs of sensation would be alternately paralyzed. One 
day the patient became blind; on the next, she could see, 
but could not hear ; another day she lost her speech. The 



AND CATALEPSY. 129 

mutations were noticed generally in the night, upon her 
waking out of sleep. " Nevertheless," says M. Delpit, 
"her intellect preserved all its vivacity and force, and, 
during the palsy of the organs of sensation, nature sup- 
plied the loss in another way; when, with her eyes, Mdlle. 
Caroline could not distinguish light, she yet read, and 
read distinctly, by carrying her fingers over the letters. 
I have made her thus read, in the daytime and in the 
profoundest darkness, either printed pages out of the 
first book that came to hand, or written passages that I 
had previously prepared." In this, the alternation of dif- 
ferent states of recollections is not described as having 
been observed. But I have little doubt that double con- 
sciousness was really present. I believe that feature to 
be essential to waking trance. I have little doubt, like- 
wise, that double consciousness is attended by more or 
less trance-perception. The co-existence of spasm, neces- 
sary to constitute the case one of catalepsy, is accidental. 

Sensorial illusions occasionally occur in catalepsy, but 
not frequently; they are commoner in the inferior grades 
of trance. The daimon of Socrates was, no doubt, a hal- 
lucination of this kind. 

The trance-daimon, or sensorial illusion mixing itself 
with trance, is exemplified in the following case of ca- 
talepsy, which occurred in the person of the adopted 
daughter of the Baron de Strombeck. 

Besides the ordinary features, on which I will not again 
dwell, at one time it was her custom to apply to an ima- 
ginary being for directions as to the treatment of her 
own case. Subsequently, she one day observed — "It is 
not a phantom; I was in error in thinking it so; it is a 
voice which speaks within me, and which I think without 
This apparition comes because my sleep is less per- 
12 



180 TRANCE-WAKING 

feet. In that case, I seem to see a white cloud rise out 
of the earth, from which a voice issues, the echo of which 
reverberates within me." 

This patient had quintuple consciousness, or four morbid 
states, each of which kept its own recollections to itself. 

A final case I will quote, the authority of which is the 
Baron de Fortis. It was treated by Dr. Despine of Aix- 
les-Bains. 

The patient had had epilepsy, for the cure of which she 
went to Aix. There she had all sorts of fits and day- 
somnambulism, during which she waited at table, with her 
eyes shut, perfectly. She likewise saw alternately with 
her fingers, the palm of her hand, and her elbow, and 
would write with precision with her right hand, superin- 
tending the process with her left elbow. These details 
are peculiarly gratifying to myself, for in the little I have 
seen, I yet have seen a patient walk about with her eyes 
shut, and well blinded besides, holding the knuckles of 
one hand before her as a seeing lantern. However, the 
special interest of this case is, that the patient was dif- 
ferently affected by different kinds of matter ; glass ap- 
peared to burn her, porcelain was pleasantly warm, 
earthenware felt cold. 

What comment can I make on the preceding wondrous 
details ? Those to whom they are new must have time to 
become familiar with them ; in order, reversing the pro- 
cess by which the eye gets to see in the dark, to learn to 
distinguish objects in this flood of excessive light. Those 
who are already acquainted with them will, I think, agree 
with me that the principle which I have assumed — the 
possibility of an abnormal relation of the mind and body 
allowing the former, either to shift the place of its mani- 
festations in the nervous system, or partially to energize 



AND CATALEPSY. 131 

as free spirit — is the only one which at present offers any 
solution of the new powers displayed in catalepsy. One 
regrets that more was not made of the opportunities of 
observation which Petetin enjoyed. But there are means, 
which I shall by-and-by have occasion to specify, through 
which, in the practice of medicine, and in the proper 
treatment of various disorders, like instances may be 
artificially multiplied and modified so as to meet the exi- 
gencies of inductive science. In the mean time, let me 
append one or two corollaries to the preceding demon- 
stration. 

I. It is evident that the performances of catalepsy re- 
duce the oracles of antiquity to natural phenomena. Let 
us examine the tradition of that of Delphi. 

Diodorus relates, that goats feeding near an opening 
in the ground were observed to jump about in a singular 
manner, and that a goatherd approaching to examine the 
spot was taken with a fit and prophesied. Then the priests 
took possession of the spot and built a temple. Plutarch 
tells us that that the priestess was an uneducated peasant- 
girl, of good character and conduct. Placed upon the 
tripod, and affected by the exhalation, she struggled and 
became convulsed, and foamed at the mouth; and in that 
state she delivered the oracular answer. The convulsions 
were sometimes so violent that the Pythia died. Plutarch 
adds, that the answers were never in error, and that their 
established truth filled the temple with offerings from the 
whole of Greece, and from barbarian nations. Without 
supposing it to have been infallible, we must, I think, 
infer that the oracle was too often right to have been 
wholly a trick. The state of the Pythia was probably 
trance with convulsions, the same with that in which ca- 
taleptic patients have foreseen future events. The priestess 



132 TRANCE-WAKING 

was of blameless life, which suits the production of trance, 
the fine susceptibility of which is spoilt by irregular 
living. Finally, from what we know of the effects of 
the few gases and vapours of which the inhalation has 
been tried, it is any thing but improbable that one or 
other gaseous compound should directly induce trance in 
predisposed subjects. 

II. The performances of Zschokke are poor by the side 
of those of a cataleptic. But then he was not entranced. 
Nevertheless, an approach to that state manifested itself 
in his losing himself when inspecting his visiter's brains. 
So again, those who had the gift of second-sight are re- 
presented to have been subject to fits of abstraction, in 
which they stood rapt. The praternatural gifts of So- 
crates were probably those of a Highland seer; in which 
character he is reported to have foretold the death of an 
officer, if he pursued a route he contemplated. The offi- 
cer would not change his plans, and was met by the enemy, 
and slain accordingly. In all these cases, the mind seems 
to have gone out to seek its knowledge. Two of Mr. Wil- 
liamson's lucid patients, of whom more afterwards, told 
him that their minds went out at the backs of their heads, 
in starting on these occasions. They pointed to the lower 
and back part of the head, opposite to the medulla oblon- 
gata. In prophetic, and in true retrospective dreams, 
one may imagine the phenomena taking the same course ; 
most likely the dreamers have slipt in their sleep into 
a brief lucid somnambulism. In the cases of ghosts and 
of dreams, coincident with the period of the death of an 
absent person, it seems simpler to suppose the visit to 
have come from the other side. So the Vampyr-ghost 
was probably a visit made by the free part of the mind 
of the patient who lay buried in death-trance. The visit 



AND CATALEPSY. 133 

was fatal to the party visited, because trance is conta- 
gious. 

III. The wonderful performances attributed to instinct 
in animals appear less incomprehensible when viewed in 
juxtaposition with some of the feats of lucid cataleptics. 
The term instinct is a very vague one. It is commonly 
used to denote the intelligence of animals as opposed to 
human reason. Instinct is, therefore, a compound phe- 
nomenon; and I must begin by resolving it into its ele- 
ments. They are three in number: — 

1. Observation and reasoning of the same kind with 
that of man, but limited in their scope. They are exer- 
cised only in immediate self-preservation, and in the di- 
rect supply of the creature's bodily wants or simple im- 
pulses. A dog will whine to get admission into the house, 
will open the latch of a gate; one rook will sit sentry for 
the rest ; a plover will fly low, and short distances, as if 
hurt, to wile away a dog from her nest. But in this vein 
of intelligence, animals make no further advance. Re- 
flection, with the higher faculties and sentiments which 
minister to it, and with it constitute reason, is denied them. 
So they originate no objects of pursuit in the way that man 
does, and have no source of self-improvement. But, in lack 
of human reflection, some animals receive the help of — 

2. Special conceptions, which are developed in their 
minds at fitting seasons. Of this nature, to give an in- 
stance, is the notion of nest-building in birds. It may be 
observed of these conceptions that they appear to us ar- 
bitrary, though perfectly suited to the being of each 
species : thus, in the example referred to, we may suppose 
that the material and shape of the nest might be varied 
without its object being the less perfectly attained, — at 
least, as far as we can see. The conception spontaneously 

12* 



1 34 TRANCE-WAKING 

developed in the mind of the bird is then carried out in- 
telligently, through the same quick and just observation, 
in a little way, which habitually ministers to its appetites, 
as I explained in a preceding paragraph. 

The special conception is sometimes characterized by 
the utmost perfectness of mechanical design. Here, how- 
ever, is nothing to surprise us. The supreme wisdom 
which preordained the development of an idea in an in- 
sect's mind, might as easily as not have given it absolute 
perfectness. But — 

3. Some animals have the power of modifying the 
special conception, when circumstances arise which pre- 
vent its being carried out in the usual way ; and of re- 
alizing it in a great many different ways, on as many dif- 
ferent occasions. And their work, on each of these oc- 
casions, is as perfect as in their carrying out the ordi- 
nary form of the conception. I beg leave to call the 
principle, by which they see thus how to shape their 
course so perfectly under new circumstances — intuition. 
To instance it, there is a beetle called the rhynchites 
betuhe. Its habit is, towards the end of May, to cut the 
leaves of the betula alba, or betula pubescens, into slips, 
which it rolls up into funnel-shaped chambers, which 
form singularly convenient cradles for its eggs. This is 
done after one pattern; and one may suppose it the me- 
chanical realization of an inborn idea, as long as the leaf 
is perfect in shape. But if the leaf is imperfect, intui- 
tion steps upon the scene to aid the insect to cut its coat 
after its cloth. The sections made are then seen to vary 
with the varying shape of the leaf. Many different sec- 
tions made by the insect were accurately drawn by a 
German naturalist, Dr. Debey. He submitted them for 
examination to Professor Heis of Aix-la-Chapelle. Upon 



AND CATALEPSY. 1 35 

carefully studying them, Dr. Heis found these cuttings of 
the leaves, in suitableness to the end proposed, even to 
the minutest technical detail, to be in accordance with 
calculations compassable only through the higher mathe- 
matics, which, till modern times, were unknown to human 
intelligence. Such is the marvellous power of " intui- 
tion, " displayed by certain insects. I know not how to 
define it but as a power of immediate reference to abso- 
lute truth, evinced by the insect in carrying out its little 
plans. It is evident that the insect uses the same power 
in realizing its ordinary special conception, when the re- 
sult displays equal perfectness. And the question even 
crosses one's mind, Are the seemingly arbitrary plans 
really arbitrary? — may they not equally represent a 
highest type of design ? But, be that as it may, the in- 
tuition of insects, as we now apprehend it, no longer 
stands an isolated phenomenon. The lucid cataleptic 
cannot less directly communicate with the source of truth, 
as she proves by foreseeing future events. 

IV. The speculations of Berkeley and Boscovich on the 
non-existence of matter; and of Kant and others on the 
arbitrariness of all our notions, are interested in, for 
they appear to be refuted by, the intuitions of cataleptics. 
The cataleptic apprehends or perceives directly the ob- 
jects around her; but they are the same as when realized 
through her senses. She notices no difference ; size, form, 
colour, distance, are elements as real to her now as be- 
fore. In respect again to the future, she sees it, but not 
in the sense of the annihilation of time ; she foresees it ; it 
is the future present to her; time she measures, present 
and future, with strange precision, — strange, yet an ap- 
proximation, instead of this certainty, would have been 
still more puzzling. 



13G RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

So that it appears that our notions of matter, force, 
and the like, and of the conditions of space and time, 
apart from which we can conceive nothing, are not fig- 
ments to suit our human and temporary being, but ele- 
ments of eternal truth. 



LETTER IX. 

Religious Delusions — The seizures giving rise to them shown to 
have been forms of trance brought on by fanatical excitement — 
The Cevennes — Scenes at the tomb of the Abbe Paris — Revivals 
in America — The Ecstatica of Caldaro — Three forms of imputed 
demoniacal possession — Witchcraft ; its marvels, and the solution. 

There have been occasions, when much excitement on 
the subject of religion has prevailed, and when strange 
disorders of the nervous system have developed them- 
selves among the people, which have been interpreted as 
immediate visitings of the Holy Spirit. The interpreta- 
tion was delusive, the belief in it superstition. The ef- 
fects displayed were neither more nor less than pheno- 
mena of trance, the physiological consequences of the 
prevailing excitement. The reader who has attentively 
perused the preceding letters will have no difficulty in 
identifying forms of this affection in the varieties of re- 
ligious seizures, which, without further comment, I pro- 
ceed to exemplify. 

Every one will have met with allusions to some extra- 
ordinary scenes which took place in the Cevennes, at the 
close of the seventeenth century. 

It was towards the end of the year 1688 that a report 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 137 

was first heard of a gift of prophecy which had shown 
itself among the persecuted followers of the Reforma- 
tion, who, in the south of France, had betaken themselves 
to the mountains. The first instance was said to have 
occurred in the family of a glass-dealer of the name of 
Du Serre, well known as the most zealous Calvinist of 
the neighbourhood, which was a solitary spot in Dau- 
phine, near Mount Peyra. In the enlarging circle of en- 
thusiasts, Gabriel Astier and Isabella Vincent made them- 
selves first conspicuous. Isabella, a girl of sixteen years 
of age, from Dauphine, who was in the service of a pea- 
sant, and tended sheep, began in her sleep to preach and 
prophesy, and the Reformers came from far and near to 
hear her. An advocate of the name of Gerlan describes 
the following scene, which he had witnessed. At his re- 
quest, she had admitted him and a good many others, after 
nightfall, to a meeting at a chateau in the neighbourhood. 
She there disposed herself upon a bed, shut her eyes, 
and went to sleep. In her sleep she chanted, in a low 
tone, the Commandments and a psalm. After a short re- 
spite she began to preach, in a louder voice — not in her 
own dialect, but in good French, which hitherto she 
had not used. The theme was an exhortation to obey 
God rather than man. Sometimes she spoke so quickly 
as to be hardly intelligible. At certain of her pauses she 
stopped to collect herself. She accompanied her words 
with gesticulations. Gerlan found her pulse quiet, her 
arm not rigid, but relaxed, as natural. After an inter- 
val, her countenance put on a mocking expression, and 
she began anew her exhortation, w r hich was now mixed 
with ironical reflections upon the Church of Rome. She 
then suddenly stopped, continuing asleep. It was in vain 
they stirred her. When her arms were lifted and let go> 



138 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

they dropped unconsciously. As several now went away, 
whom her silence rendered impatient, she said in a low 
tone, but just as if she was awake, — "Why do you go 
away? — why do not you wait till I am ready ?" And 
then she delivered another ironical discourse against the 
Catholic Church. She closed the scene with prayer. 

When Bouchier, the intendant of the district, heard of 
the performances of Isabella Vincent, he had her brought 
before him. She replied to his interrogatories, that peo- 
ple had often told her that she preached in her sleep, but 
that she did not herself believe a word of it. As the 
slightness of her person made her appear younger than 
she really was, the intendant merely sent her to an hos- 
pital at Grenoble; where, notwithstanding that she was 
visited by persons of the Reformed persuasion, there was 
an end of her preaching — she became a Catholic ! 

Gabriel Astier, who had been a young labourer, like- 
wise from Dauphin6, went, in the capacity of a preacher 
and prophet, into the valley of Bressac, in the Vivarais. 
He had infected his family: his father, mother, elder 
brother, and sweetheart, followed his example, and took 
to prophesying. Gabriel, before he preached, used to 
fall into a kind of stupor in which he lay rigid. After 
delivering his sermon, he would dismiss his auditors with 
a kiss, and the words — " My brother, or my sister, I im- 
part to you the Holy Ghost." Many believed that they 
had thus received the Holy Ghost from Astier, being taken 
with the same seizure. During the period of the dis- 
course, first one, then another, would fall down : some de- 
s cribed themselves afterwards as having felt first a weak- 
ness and trembling through the whole frame, and an im- 
pulse to yawn and stretch their arms ; then they fell, con- 
vulsed and foaming at the mouth. Others carried the 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 189 

contagion home with them, and first experienced its ef- 
fects, days, weeks, or months afterwards. They believed 
— nor is it wonderful they did so — that they had received 
the Holy Ghost. 

Not less curious were the seizures of the Convulsion- 
naires at the grave of the Abb6 Paris, in the year 1727. 
These Jansenist visionaries used to collect in the church- 
yard of St. Medard, round the grave of the deposed and 
deceased deacon ; and before long, the reputation of the 
place for working miracles getting about, they fell in troops 
into convulsions. They required, to gratify an internal 
impulse or feeling, that the most violent blows should 
be inflicted upon them at the pit of the stomach. Carre 
de Montgeron mentions that, being himself an enthu- 
siast in the matter, he had inflicted the blows required 
with an iron instrument, weighing from twenty to thirty 
pounds, with a round head. And as a convulsionary lady 
complained that he struck too lightly to relieve the feel- 
ing of depression at her stomach, he gave her sixty blows 
with all his force. It would not do, and she begged to 
have the instrument used by a tall, strong man, who stood 
by in the crowd. The spasmodic tension of her muscles 
must have been enormous; for she received one hundred 
blows, delivered with such force that the wall shook be- 
hind her. She thanked the man for his benevolent aid, 
and contemptuously censured De Montgeron for his weak- 
ness, or want of faith, and timidity. It was, indeed, 
time for issuing the mandate, which, as wit read it, ran — 

" De par le roi — Defense a Dieu ? 
De faire miracle en ce lieu. ;? 

In the revivals of modern times, scenes parallel to the 
above have been renewed. 

" I have seen," says Mr. Le Roi Sunderland, himself a 



140 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

preacher, (Zions Watchman, New York, Oct. 2, 1842,) 
" persons often 'lose their strength,' as it is called, at 
camp-meetings and other places of great religious excite- 
ment ; and not pious people alone, but those, also, who 
were not professors of religion. In the spring of 1824, 
while performing pastoral labour in Dennis, Massachu- 
setts, I saw more than twenty affected in this way. Two 
young men, of the name of Crowell, came one day to a 
prayer-meeting. They were quite indifferent. I conversed 
with them freely, but they showed no signs of penitence. 
From the meeting they went to their shop, (they were shoe - 
makers,) to finish some work before going to the meeting 
in the evening. On seating themselves, they were both 
struck perfectly stiff. I was immediately sent for, and 
found them sitting paralyzed' ' (he means taken w r ith the 
initiatory form of trance-sleep, and possibly cataleptic) 
"on their benches, with their work in their hands, unable 
to get up, or to move at all. I have seen scores of per- 
sons affected the same way. I have seen persons lie in 
this state forty- eight hours. At such times they are un- 
able to converse, and are sometimes unconscious of what 
is passing round them. At the same time, they say they 
are in a happy state of mind." 

The following extract from the same journal portrays 
another kind of nervous seizure, as it was manifested at 
the great revival some forty years ago, at Kentucky and 
Tennessee. 

"The convulsions were commonly called 'the jerks.' 
A writer, (M 'Neman) quoted by Mr. Power, [Essay on the 
Influence of the Imagination over the Nervous System,) 
gives this account of their course and progress : 

" ' At first appearance these meetings exhibited nothing 
to the spectator but a scene of confusion that could scarcely 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 141 

be put into language. They were generally opened with 
a sermon, near the close of which there would be an un- 
usual outcry, some bursting out into loud ejaculations of 
prayer, &c. 

" ' The rolling exercise consisted in being cast down in 
a violent manner, doubled with the head and feet together, 
or stretched in a prostrate manner, turning swiftly over 
like a dog. Nothing in nature could better represent the 
jerks, than for one to goad another alternately on every 
side with a piece of red-hot iron. The exercise commonly 
began in the head, which would fly backwards and for- 
wards, and from side to side, with a quick jolt, which the 
person would naturally labour to suppress, but in vain. 
He must necessarily go on as he was stimulated, whether 
with a violent dash on the ground, and bounce from place 
to place, like a foot-ball ; or hopping round, with head, 
limbs, and trunk twitching and jolting in every direction, 
as if they must inevitably fly asunder,' " &c. 

The following sketch is from Dow's journal. In the 
year 1805 he preached at Knoxville, Tennessee, before 
the governor, when some hundred and fifty persons, 
among whom were a number of Quakers, had the jerks. 
"I have seen," says the writer, " all denominations of 
religion exercised by the jerks — gentleman and lady, 
black and white, young and old, without exception. I 
passed a meeting-house, where I observed the under- 
growth had been cut down for camp-meetings, and from 
fifty to a hundred saplings were left for the people who 
were jerked to hold by. I observed where they had held 
on they had kicked up the earth, as a horse stamping 
flies." 

A widely different picture to the above is given in a 
letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to A. M. Phillips, 
13 



142 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

Esq., published in 1841, and describing the state of two 
religieuses, (the Ecstatica of Caldaro, and the Addolorata 
of Capriana,) who were visited by members of their own 
communion, in the belief that they lay in a sort of hea- 
venly beatitude. To this idea their stillness, the devo- 
tional attitude of their hands and expression of their 
countenances, together with their manifestation of mira- 
culous intuition, contributed. But I am afraid that, to 
the eye of a physician, their condition would have been 
simple trance. However, while the absence of reason- 
able enlightenment in the display is to be regretted, one 
agreeably recognises the influence of the humanity of 
modern times. Had these young women lived two cen- 
turies ago, they would have been the subjects of other 
discipline, and their history, had I possessed it to quote, 
must have been transferred to the darker section w T hich 
I have next to enter on. 

The belief in possession by devils, which existed in 
the middle ages and subsequently, embraced several dis- 
similar cases. The first of them which I will exemplify 
would have included individuals in the state of the reli- 
gieuses described by Lord Shrewsbury. Behaviour and 
powers which the people could not understand, even if 
exhibited by good and virtuous persons, and only expres- 
sive of or used for right purposes, were construed into the 
operation of unholy influences. The times were the reign 
of terror in religion. I give the following instance: — 
Marie Bucaille, a native of Normandy, became, towards 
the year 1700, the subject of fits, which ordinarily lasted 
three or four hours. It appears, by the depositions of 
persons of character on her trial, that Marie had effected 
many cures seemingly by her prayers; that she compre- 
hended and executed directions given to her mentally; 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 143 

that she read the thoughts of others. When in the fit, 
the Cure of Golleville placed in the hands of Marie a 
folded note. Without opening the note, she replied to 
the questions which it contained; and, without knowing 
the writer, she accurately described her person. Although 
Marie only employed her powers to cure the sick and in 
the service of religion, she was not the less condemned 
to death by the parliament of Valogne. The parliament 
of Rouen mitigated her punishment to whipping and pub- 
lic ignominy. 

A second class, who came nearer to the exact idea 
of being possessed by devils, w T ere persons wdio w T ere 
deranged, and entertained something of that impression 
themselves, and avowed it. I am not speaking of single 
instances, but of an extensive popular delusion, or frenzy 
rather, which prevailed in the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries in parts of Europe as an epidemic seizure. It 
was called the wolf-sickness. Those affected betook 
themselves to the forests as wild beasts. One of these, 
who was brought before De Lancre, at Bordeaux, in the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, was a young man of 
Besangon. He avowed himself to be huntsman of the 
forest lord, his invisible master. He believed that, 
through the power of his master, he had been transformed 
into a wolf; that he hunted in the forest as such ; and 
that he was often accompanied by a bigger wolf, whom 
he suspected to be the master he served ; with more de- 
tails of the same kind. The persons thus affected were 
called Wehrwolves. Their common fate was the alter- 
native of recovering from their derangement, under the 
influence of exorcism and its accessories, or of being exe- 
cuted. 

The third and proper type of possession by devils pre- 



144 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

sented more complicated features. The patient's state 
was not uniform. Often, or for the most part, his appear- 
ance and behaviour were natural ; then paroxysms would 
supervene, in which he appeared fierce, malignant, de- 
moniacal, in which he believed himself to be possessed, 
and acted up to the character, and in which powers, 
seemingly superhuman, such as reading the thoughts of 
others, were manifested by the possessed. The explana- 
tion of these features is happily given by Dr. Fischer of 
Basle, author of an excellent work on Somnambulism. 
He resolves them, with evident justice, into recurrent fits 
of trance — the patient, when entranced, being at the same 
time deranged ; and he exemplifies his hypothesis by the 
case of a German lady who had fits of trance, in which 
she fancied herself a French emigree : it would have been 
as easy for her, had it been the mode, to have fancied 
herself, and to have played the part of being, possessed 
by the fiend. The case is this : 

Gmelin, in the first volume of his Contributions to 
Anthropology, narrates that, in the year 1789, a German 
lady, under his observation, had daily paroxysms, in 
which she believed herself to be, and acted the part of, 
a French Emigrant. She had been in distress of mind 
through the absence of a person she was attached to, 
and he was somehow implicated in the scenes of the 
French Revolution. After an attack of fever and deli- 
rium, the complaint regulated itself, and took the form 
of a daily fit of trance-waking. When the time for the 
fit approached, she stopped in her conversation, and 
ceased to answer when spoken to; she then remained a 
few minutes sitting perfectly still, her eyes fixed on the 
carpet before her. Then, in evident uneasiness, she be- 
gan to move her head backwards and forwards, to sigh and 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 145 

to pass her fingers across her eyebrows. This lasted a 
minute ; then she raised her eyes, looked once or twice 
round with timidity and embarrassment, then began to 
talk in French, when she would describe all the particu- 
lars of her escape from France, and, assuming the man- 
ner of a French woman, talk purer and better accented 
French than she had been known to be capable of talk- 
ing before, correct her friends when they spoke incor- 
rectly, but delicately, and with a comment on the Ger- 
man rudeness of laughing at the bad pronunciation of 
strangers : and if led herself to speak or read German, 
she used a French accent, and spoke it ill ; and the like. 

We have by this time had intercourse enough with 
spirits and demons to prepare us for the final subject of 
witchcraft. 

The superstition of witchcraft stretches back into re- 
mote antiquity, and has many roots. In Europe it is 
partly of Druidical origin. The Druidesses were part 
priestesses, part shrewd old ladies, who dealt in magic 
and medicine. They were called allrune, all-knowing. 
There was some touch of classical superstition mingled 
in the stream which was flowing down to us ; so an edict 
of a Council of Treves, in the year 1310, has this injunc- 
tion: — "Nulla mulierum se nocturnis horis equitare cum 
Diana profiteatur; haec enim d?emoniaca est illusio." But 
the main source from which we derived this superstition 
is the East, and traditions and facts incorporated in our 
religion. There were only wanted the ferment of thought 
of the fifteenth century, the energy, ignorance, enthusi- 
asm, and faith of those days, and the papal denunciation 
of witchcraft by the Bull of Innocent the Eighth, in 
1459, to give fury to the delusion. And from this time, 
for three centuries, the flames at which more than a 

13* 



146 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

.hundred thousand victims perished cast a lurid light over 
Europe. 

But the fires are out — the superstition is extinct — and 
its history is trite, and has lost all interest ; so I will 
hasten to the one point in it which deserves, which indeed 
requires, explanation. 

I do not advert to the late duration of the belief in 
witchcraft — so late, that it is but a century this very 
month of January since the last witch, a lady and a sub- 
prioress, whose confession I will afterwards give, was 
executed in Germany ; while, at the same period, a strong 
effort was made in Scotland, by good and conscientious, 
and otherwise sensible persons, to reanimate the embers 
of the delusion, as is shown by the following evidence. 
In February, 1743, the Associate Presbytery, meaning 
the Presbytery of the Secession or Seceders, (from the 
Scottish Established Church,) passed, and soon thereafter 
published, an act for renewing the National Covenant, 
in w T hich there is a solemn acknowledgment of sins, and 
vow to renounce them ; among which sins is specified " the 
repeal of the penal statutes against witchcraft, contrary 
to the express laws of God, and for which a holy God may 
be provoked, in a way of righteous judgment, to leave 
those who are already ensnared to be hardened more and 
more, and to permit Satan to tempt and seduce others to 
the same wicked and dangerous snare." — (Note, Edin- 
burgh Review \ January, 1847.) 

Nor is the marvel in the absolute belief of the people 
in witchcraft only two centuries ago : what could they do 
but believe, when the witches and sorcerers themselves, 
before their execution, often avowed their guilt and told 
how they had laid themselves out to league with the evil 
spirit; how they had gone through a regular process of 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 147 

initiation in the black art; how they had been rebaptized 
with the support of regular witch-sponsors ; how they had 
abjured Christ, and had entered, to the best of their be- 
lief, into a compact with the Devil, and had commenced 
accordingly a suitable course of bad works, poisoning and 
bewitching men and cattle, and the like? 

Nor is the wonder in the unfairness with which those 
accused of witchcraft were treated. So at Lindheim, 
Horst reports on one occasion six women were implicated 
in a charge of having disinterred the body of a child to 
make a witchbroth. As they happened to be innocent 
of the deed, they underwent the most cruel tortures be- 
fore they would confess it. At length they saw their 
cheapest bargain was to admit the crime, and be simply 
burned alive, and have it over. They did so. But the 
husband of one of them procured an official examination 
of the grave, when the child's body was found in its coffin 
safe and sound. What said the Inquisitor? " This is 
indeed a proper piece of devil's work: no, no, I am not 
to be taken in by such a gross and obvious imposture. 
Luckily the women have already confessed the crime, and 
burned they must and shall be, in honour of the Holy 
Trinity, which has commanded the extirpation of sorcerers 
and witches." The six women were burned alive accord- 
ingly ; for the people had fits of frenzied terror, which re- 
quired to be allayed by the sacrifice of a victim or two, 
and Justice became confused: to be sure, in those days 
her head was never very clear, and threw by mistake the 
odium of the crime into the accusing scale ; the other flew 
up significantly of the full extent to which mercy could 
interfere to temper the law. A curious instance of an 
epidemic attack of the belief in witchcraft occurred at 
Salzburg between the years 1627 and 1629, originating 



148 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

in a sickness among the cattle in the neighbourhood. The 
sickness was unluckily attributed to witchcraft, and an 
active inquiry was set on foot to detect the participators 
in the crime. .It was very successful; for we find in the 
list of persons burned alive on this occasion, besides chil- 
dren of 14, 12, 11, 10, 9 years of age, fourteen canons, four 
gentlemen of the choir, two young men of rank, a fat old 
lady of rank, the wife of a burgomaster, a counsellor, the 
fattest burgess of Wiirtzburg, together with his wife, the 
handsomest woman in the city, and a midwife of the 
name of Shiekelte, with whom (according to a N. B. in 
the original report) the whole of the mischief originated. 

The marvel in witchcraft is the belief entertained by 
the sorcerers and witches themselves of its reality. That 
many of these persons, shrewd and unprincipled, should 
have pretended an implicit belief in their art, till they 
were brought to justice, is only what is still occasionally 
done in modern times. But that they should, as it is 
proved by some of their confessions previous to execution, 
have been their own dupes, and have entertained no doubt 
whatsoever of the reality of their intercourse with the 
devil, is surprising enough to deserve explanation. A 
single crucial instance will bring us upon the trail of the 
solution. 

A little maid, twelve years of age, used to fall into fits 
of sleep ; and afterwards she told her parents and the 
judge how an old woman and her daughter, riding on a 
broomstick, had come and taken her out with them. The 
daughter sat foremost, the old woman behind, the little 
maid between. They went away through the roof of the 
house, over the adjoining houses and the towngate, to a 
village some way off. Upon arriving there, the party 
went down the chimney of a cottage into a room, where 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 140 

sat a black man and twelve women. They eat and drank. 
The black man filled their glasses from a can, and gave 
each of the women a handful of gold. She herself had 
received none, but she had eaten and drunk with them. 

See how much this example displays. I mean not that 
the superstition was imbibed in childhood, though that 
would do much to establish the belief in it, but that it 
had power to disturb the mind sufficiently to produce 
trance-sleep; for such were evidently the fits of sleep 
this child described; and trance-sleep, with its special 
character of visions, of dreams vivid, coherent, continu- 
ous, realizing the ideas which had driven the mind into 
trance. Elder persons, it is to be presumed, were occa- 
sionally similarly wrought upon. And the witches seemed 
to have known and availed themselves of the confidence 
in their art that could be thus promoted ; and by witch- 
broths, of which narcotics formed an ingredient, they 
would induce in themselves and in their pupils a heavy 
stupor, which so far resembles trance that vivid and con- 
nected dreams occur in it. Here was the seeming reality 
necessary for absolute belief. It lay in not understood 
trance-phenomena. Other evidence from the same source 
came in to support the first. Some of the witch-pupils in 
their trances would show a strange knowledge; some of 
the victims, on whose fears or persons they had wrought, 
would become possessed — proving their art to be not less 
real than they believed thus the elementary part to be of 
their personal communication with the fiend. These re- 
marks explain collaterally why witches and sorceresses 
were more numerous than sorcerers and magicians. In- 
sufficient occupation and other causes helped probably to 
dispose women to seek a resource in the intense excite- 
ment of this crime; but besides, trance stood at their ser- 
vice, which men seldomer experience. 



150 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

I will conclude with two pictures. One, the confes- 
sion — interesting, however, from its relation to the child's 
early vision — of vulgar and ordinary witches ; the other, 
the substance of the confession of a lady-witch, which, in 
itself, tells the whole curious tale of this disease. 

At Mora, in Sweden, in 1669, of many who were put 
to the torture and executed, seventy-two women agreed 
in the following avowal : That they were in the habit of 
meeting at a place called Blocula. That on their calling 
out "Come forth," the Devil used to appear to them in 
a gray coat, red breeches, gray stockings, with a red beard, 
and a peaked hat with parti-coloured feathers on his head. 
He then enforced upon them, not without blows, that they 
must bring him, at nights, their own and other people's 
children, stolen for the purpose. They travel through 
the air to Blocula either on beasts, or on spits, or broom- 
sticks. When they have many children with them, they 
rig on an additional spar to lengthen the back of the goat 
or their broomstick, that the children may have room to 
sit. At Blocula they sign their name in blood, and are 
baptized. The Devil is a humorous, pleasant gentleman ; 
but his table is coarse enough, which makes the children 
often sick on their way home, the product being the so- 
called witch-butter found in the fields. When the Devil 
is larky, he solicits the witches to dance round him on 
their brooms, which he suddenly pulls from under them, 
and uses to beat them with, till they are black and blue. 
He laughs at this joke till his sides shake again. Some- 
times he is in a more gracious mood, and plays to them 
lovely airs upon the harp ; and occasionally sons and 
daughters are born to the Devil, which take up their resi- 
dence at Blocula. 

The following is the history of the lady-witch. She 



RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 151 

was, at the time of her death, seventy years of age, and 
had been many years sub-prioress of the convent of Un- 
terzell, near Wurtzburg. 

Maria Renata took the veil at nineteen years of age, 
against her inclination, having previously been initiated 
in the mysteries of witchcraft, which she continued to 
practise for fifty years, under the cloak of punctual at- 
tendance to discipline and pretended piety. She was 
long in the station of sub-prioress, and would, for her ca- 
pacity, have been promoted to the rank of prioress, had 
she not betrayed a certain discontent with the ecclesias- 
tical life, a certain contrariety to her superiors, something 
half expressed only of inward dissatisfaction. Renata 
had not ventured to let any one about the convent into 
her confidence, and she remained free from suspicion, 
notwithstanding that, from time to time, some of the nuns, 
either from the herbs she mixed with their food, or through 
sympathy, had strange seizures, of which some died. 
Renata became at length extravagant and unguarded in 
her witch-propensities, partly from long security, partly 
from desire of stronger excitement — made noises in the 
dormitory, and uttered shrieks in the garden; went at 
nights into the cells of the nuns to pinch and torment 
them, to assist her in which she kept a considerable sup- 
ply of cats. The removal of the keys of the cells coun- 
teracted this annoyance; but a still more efficient means 
was a determined blow, on the part of a nun, struck at 
the aggressor with the penitential scourge one night, on 
the morning following which Renata was observed to have 
a black eye and cut face. This event awakened suspicion 
against Renata. Then one of the nuns, who was much 
esteemed, declared, believing herself upon her death-bed, 
that, "as she shortly expected to stand before her Maker, 



152 RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS. 

Renata was uncanny ; that she had often at nights been 
visibly tormented by her, and that she warned her to 
desist from this course.' ' General alarm arose, and ap- 
prehension of Renata's arts; and one of the nuns, who 
previously had had fits, now became possessed, and, in 
the paroxysms, told the wildest tales against Renata. It 
is only wonderful how the sub-prioress contrived to keep 
her ground so many years against these suspicions and 
incriminations. She adroitly put aside the insinuations 
of the nun as imaginary, or of calumnious intention, and 
treated witchcraft and possession of the Devil as things 
which enlightened people no longer believed in. As, how- 
ever, five more of the nuns, either taking the infection 
from the first, or influenced by the arts of Renata, became 
possessed of devils, and unanimously attacked Renata, 
the superiors could no longer avoid making a serious in- 
vestigation of the charges. Renata was confined to a 
cell alone, whereupon the six devils screeched in chorus 
at being deprived of their friend. She had begged to be 
allowed to take her papers with her ; but this being re- 
fused, and thinking herself detected, she at once avowed 
to her confessor and the superiors that she was a witch, 
had learned witchcraft out of the convent, and had be- 
witched the six nuns. They determined to keep the 
matter secret, and to attempt the conversion of Renata. 
And, as the nuns still continued possessed, they despatched 
her to a remote convent. Here, under a show of outward 
piety, she still went on with her attempts to realize witch- 
craft, and the nuns remained possessed. It was decided 
at length to give Renata over to the civil power. She 
was accordingly condemned to be burned alive; but in 
mitigation of punishment, her head was first struck off. 
Four of the possessed nuns gradually recovered, with 



MESMERISM. 153 

clerical assistance — the other two remained deranged. 
Renata was executed on the 21st January, 1749. 

Renata stated, in her voluntary confession, that she 
had often, at night, been carried bodily to witch-sabbaths, 
in one of which she was first presented to the Prince of 
Darkness, when she abjured God and the Virgin at the 
same time. Her name, with the alteration of Maria into 
Emma, was written in a black book, and she herself was 
stamped on the back as the Devil's property; in return 
for which she received the promise of seventy years of 
life, and of all she might w r ish for. She stated that she 
had often at night gone into the cellar of the chateau and 
drank the best wine ; in the shape of a sow had walked 
on the convent walls ; on the bridge had milked the cows 
as they passed over ; and several times had mingled with 
the actors in the theatre in London. 



LETTER X. 

Mesmerism. — Use of chloroform — History of Mesmer — The true 
nature and extent of his discovery — Its applications to medicine 
and surgery — Various effects produced by mesmeric manipula- 
tions — Hysteric seizures — St. Veitz's dance — Nervous paralysis — 
Catochus — Initiatory trance — The order in which the higher trance 
phenomena are afterwards generally drawn out. 

Can no further use be made of the facts and princi- 
ples we have thus seen verified and established, than to 
explain a class of delusions which prevailed in times of 
ignorance? The powers which we have seen successfully 
employed to shake the nerves and unsettle the mind in 
14 



154 MESMERISM. 

the service of superstition, can they not be skilfully turned 
to some purpose beneficial to society ? 

A satisfactory answer to the question may be found 
in the invention of ether-inhalation, and in the history 
of mesmerism. The witch narcotized her pupils in order 
to produce in them delusive visions; the surgeon stupe- 
fies his patient to annul the pain of an operation. The 
fanatic preacher excites convulsions and trance in his 
auditory as evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit ; 
Mesmer produced the same effects in his patients as a 
means of curing disease. 

It occurred to Mr. Jackson, a chemist of the United 
States, that it might be possible harmlessly to stupefy a 
patient through the inhalation of the vapour of sulphuric 
ether, to such an extent that a surgical operation would 
be unfelt by him. He communicated the idea to Mr. 
Morton, a dentist, who carried it into execution with the 
happiest results. The patient became insensible ; a tooth 
was extracted ; no pain seemed felt at the time, or was 
remembered afterwards, and no ill consequences followed. 
Led by the report of this success, in the course of the 
autumn of 1846, Messrs. Bigelow, Warren, and Heywood, 
ventured to employ the same means in surgical operations 
of a more serious description. The results obtained on 
these occasions were not less satisfactory than the first 
had been. Since then, in England, France, and Germany, 
the same interesting experiment has been repeated many 
hundred times, and the adoption of this, or of a parallel 
method, has become general in surgery. 

I withdraw from the present Letter a sketch which I 
had made from the "report" of Dr. Heyfelder, of the 
phenomena of etherization ; for a year had barely elapsed, 
when the narcotizing agent recommended by Mr. Jackson 



MESMERISM. 155 

was superseded by another, suggested and brought into 
use by Professor Simpson of Edinburgh. The inhalation 
of chloroform is found to be more rapid, uniform, and 
certain in its effects, and compassable in a simpler man- 
ner, than the inhalation of ether. Its brief phenomena 
are wound up by the production of stupor; they are re- 
motely comparable to those produced by alcohol. Alas! 
the time is passed when I enjoyed the means of looking 
through, and forming a practical judgment upon dis- 
coveries like the present. Not the less, however, do I 
hail the advent of this as a boon to the art of surgery. 
The conception was original, bold and reasonable; its 
execution neat and scientific; its success wonderful. 
It established in the year 1847, to the satisfaction of 
the public and of the medical profession, that the ex- 
clusion of pain from surgical operations is a practicable 
idea, and the attempt to realize it a legitimate pursuit. 

Then, what is Mesmerism ? 

The object of the inventor of the art was to cure dis- 
eases through the influence of a new force brought by 
him to bear upon the human frame. 

Talent, for philosophy or business, is the power of 
seeing what is yet hidden from others. As the eyes of 
some animals are fitted to see best in the dark, so the 
mental vision of some original minds prefers exercising 
itself on obscure and occult subjects. Whoever indulges 
this turn will certainly pass for a charlatan ; most likely 
he will prove one. Mesmer had it, and indulged it, in 
a high degree. The body of science which I have unfolded 
in the preceding Letters was wholly unknown in his time, 
(he was born in 1734;) but he was led by his wayward 
instinct to grope after it in the dark, and he seized and 
brought to upper light fragmentary elements of strange 



156 MESMERISM. 

capabilities, which he strove to interpret and to use. He 
had early displayed a bias towards the mystical. When 
a student at Vienna, (he was by birth a Swiss,) his prin- 
cipal study was astrology. He sought in the stars a 
force which, extending throughout space, might influence 
the beings living upon our planet. In the year 1766 he 
publi^fced his lucubrations. In attempting to identify 
his imaginary force, Mesmer first supposed it to be elec- 
tricity. Afterwards, about the year 1773, he adopted 
the idea that it must be magnetism. So at Vienna, from 
1773 to 1775, he employed the practice of stroking dis- 
eased parts of the body with magnets. But in 1776, 
happening to be upon a tour, he fell in with a mystical 
monk of the name of Gassner, who was then occupied in 
curing the Prince-Bishop of Ratisbon of blindness, by 
exorcism. Then Mesmer observed that, without magnets, 
Gassner produced much the same effects on the living 
body which he had produced with them. The fact was 
not lost upon him: he threw aside his magnets, and 
operated mostly afterwards with the hand alone. It 
appears that he was often successful in curing disease, or 
that his patients not only experienced sensible effects 
from his procedures, but frequently recovered from their 
complaints. But in 1777, his reputation, which must 
have always hung upon a very slender thread, broke 
down through a failure in the case of the musician Para- 
dies. So Mesmer left Vienna, and in the following year 
betook himself to Paris. There he obtained a success 
which quickly drew upon him the indignation, perhaps 
the jealousy, of the Faculty, who failed not to stigmatize 
him as a charlatan. They exclaimed against him for 
practising an art which he would not divulge ; and when 
he offered to display it, averred that he threw difficulties 
in the way of their investigations. Perhaps he suspected 



MESMERISM. 157 

them of want of fairness in their inquiries ; perhaps he 
was really unwilling to part with his secret. He refused 
an offer from the Government of 20,000 francs if he 
would disclose it; but he communicated freely to indi- 
viduals, under a pledge of secrecy, all he knew for a 
hundred louis. His practice itself gave most support to 
the allegations against him. His patients were received 
with an air of mystery and studied effect. The apart- 
ment, hung with mirrors, was dimly lighted. A profound 
silence was observed, broken only by strains of music, 
which occasionally floated through the rooms. The pa- 
tients were seated round a sort of vat, which contained a 
heterogeneous mixture of chemical ingredients. With 
this, and with each other, they were placed in relation 
by means of cords, or jointed rods, or by holding hands; 
and among them slowly and mysteriously moved Mesmer 
himself, affecting one by a touch, another by a look, a 
third by passes with his hand, a fourth by pointing with 
a rod. 

What followed is easily conceivable from the scenes 
referred to in my last letter as witnessed at religious 
revivals. One person became hysterical, then another ; 
one was seized with catalepsy; others with convulsions; 
some with palpitations of the heart, perspirations, and 
other bodily disturbances. These effects, however various 
and different, went all by the name of "salutary crisis. " 
The method was supposed to provoke in the sick person 
exactly the kind of action propitious to his recovery. 
And it may easily be imagined that many a patient found 
himself the better after a course of this rude empiricism, 
and that the effect made by these events passing daily in 
Paris must have been very considerable. To the ignorant 
the scene was full of wonderment. 

14* 



158 MESMERISM. 

To ourselves, regarding it from our present vantage- 
ground, it presents no marvellous characters. The phe- 
nomena were the same which we have been recently 
contemplating — a group of disorders of the nervous sys- 
tem. The causes which were present are not less familiar 
to us, nor their capability of producing such effects ; they 
were — mental excitement, here consisting in raised ex- 
pectation and fear; the contagiousness of hysteria, con- 
vulsions, and trance, its force increased by the numbers 
and close-packing of the patients ; the Od force, developed 
by the chemical action in the charged caldron, developed 
by each of the excited bodies around, its action first 
favoured by the absolute stillness observed, then by the 
increasing sensibility of the patients as their nerves 
became more and more shaken. It is remarkable that 
Jussieu — the most competent judge in the commission of 
inquiry into the truth of mesmerism, set on foot at Paris 
in 1784, of which Franklin was a member, and which 
condemned mesmerism as an imposture — was so struck 
with" what he saw, that he strongly recommended the 
subject to the attention and study of physicians. His 
objections were against the theory alone. He laid it 
down in the separate report which he gave in, that no 
physical cause had been proved to be in operation beyond 
animal heat ! curiously overlooking the fact that common 
heat would not produce the effects observed; and, there- 
fore, that the latter must have been owing to that some- 
thing which animal heat, or the radiating warmth of a 
living body, contains, in addition to common heat. That 
something we now know, but only since 1845, to be the 
Od force. 

The Od force is so new, so young in science, that 
Mesmer's reputation has not yet been credited with the 



MESMERISM. 159 

honour thence reflected upon it. I will not say that 
Mcsmer's astral force was a distinct anticipation of Von 
Reichenbach's discovery, which was noways suggested 
by the former, and was from first to last an effort of 
inductive observation. But the guess of the mystic had 
certainly a most happy parallelism to the truth, w r hich a 
different sort of mind tracked in the same field ; for the 
Od force reaches us even from the stars, and the sun and 
the fixed stars are Od-negative; and the planets and the 
moon Od-positive. It is unnecessary to follow Mesmer 
through his minor performances. The relief sometimes 
obtained by stroking diseased parts with the hand — that 
is, the effects obtained through the local action of Od — 
had been before proclaimed by Dr. Greatrex, whose pre- 
tensions had had no less an advocate than the Honourable 
Robert Boyle. The extraordinary tales of Mesmer's 
personal power over individuals are probably part exag- 
geration, part real results of his confidence and skill in 
the use of the means he wielded. Mesmer died in 1815. 
Among his pupils, when at the zenith of his fame f was 
the Marquis de Puysegur. Returning from serving at 
the siege of Gibraltar, this young officer found mesmerism 
the mode at Paris, and appears to have become, for no 
other reason, one of the initiated. At the end of a course 
of instruction, he professed himself to be no wiser than 
when it began; and he ridiculed the credulity of his 
brothers, who were stanch adherents of the new doctrine. 
However, he did not forget his lesson ; and on going the 
same spring to his estate at Besancy, near Soissons, he 
took occasion to mesmerize the daughter of his agent and 
another young person, for the toothache, and they declared 
themselves, in a few minutes, cured. This questionable 
success was sufficient to lead M. de Puysegur, a few days 



160 MESMERISM. 

after, to try his hand on a young peasant of the name 
of Victor, who was suffering with a severe fluxion on his 
chest. What was M. de Puysegur's surprise, when, at 
the end of a few minutes, Victor went off into a kind of 
tranquil sleep, without crisis or convulsion, and in that 
sleep began to gesticulate and talk, and enter into his 
private affairs. Then he became sad; and M. de Puy- 
segur tried mentally to inspire him with cheerful thoughts ; 
he hummed a lively tune to himself inaudibly, and imme- 
diately Victor began to sing the air. Victor remained 
asleep for an hour, and awoke composed, with his symp- 
toms mitigated. 

The case of Victor revolutionized the art of mesmerism. 
The large part of his life, in which M. de Puysegur had 
nothing to do but to follow this vein of inquiry, was occu- 
pied in practising and advocating a gentle manipulation 
to produce sleep, in preference to the more exciting 
means which led to the violent crises in Mesmer's art. 
I have no plea for telling how M. de Puysegur served in 
the first French revolutionary armies ; how he quitted the 
service in disgust; how narrowly he escaped the guillotine ; 
how he lived in retirement afterwards, benevolently en- 
deavouring to do good to his sick neighbours by means of 
mesmerism ; how he survived the Restoration ; and how, 
finally, he died of a cold caught by serving in the encamp- 
ment at Rheims, at the coronation of Charles X. 

For he had fulfilled his mission the day that he put 
Victor to sleep. He had made a vast stride in advance 
of his teacher. Not but that Mesmer must frequently 
have induced the same condition ; but he had passed it 
by unheeded as one only of numerous equivalent forms 
of salutary crises; or that M. de Puysegur himself esti- 
mated, or had the means of estimating, the real nature 



MESMERISM. 161 

and value of the step which he had made. To himself he 
appeared to be winning a larger domain for mesmerism, 
when in fact he had emerged into an independent field, 
into which mesmerism happened to have a gate. 

The state which he had induced in Victor was common 
trance, the initiatory sleep, followed by half-waking. He 
had obtained this result by using the Od force with quiet- 
ness and gentleness, leaving out the exciting mental 
agencies to which the mixture of violent seizures in Mes- 
mer's practice is attributable. The gentler method has 
been adopted and practised by the successors of M. de 
Puysegur, by Deleuze, Bertrand, Georget, Rostan, Fois- 
sac, Elliotson, and others. To Dr. Elliotson, the most 
successful probably, certainly the most scientific employer 
of the practice of mesmerism, the credit is due of having 
introduced its use into England: the credit,— for it re- 
quired no little moral courage to encounter the storm of 
opposition with which his honest zeal in the advocacy of 
an unpopular practical truth was met. It is but fair to 
add, that though his theory has been superseded, and his 
method changed, to Mesmer belongs the merit of having 
first tracked out and realized this path of discovery. The 
golden medal is his. 

The modern practice of mesmerism contemplates two 
objects: one, the application of the Od force to produce 
local effects; the other, its employment to induce trance. 
In the present slight sketch I shall. say nothing on the 
first subject; but let me describe how trance is induced. 
It is to be observed, that attention to certain conditions 
favours very much the success of the experiment. The 
room should not be too light; very few persons should 
be present; the patient and the operator should be quiet, 
tranquil, and composed; the patient should be fasting. 



162 MESMERISM. 

The operator has then only to sit down before the patient, 
who is likewise sitting with his hands resting on his knees, 
and gently closed, with the thumbs upwards. The ope- 
rator then lays his hands half-open upon the patient's, 
pressing the thumbs against those of the patient, as it 
were taking thumbs : this is a more convenient attitude 
than taking hands in the ordinary way. The operator 
and patient have then only to sit still. An Od-current 
is established ; and if the patient is susceptible, he will 
soon become drowsy, and perhaps be entranced at the 
first sitting. Instead of this, the two hands of the opera- 
tor may be held horizontally with the fingers pointed to 
the patient's forehead, and either maintained in this posi- 
tion, or brought downwards in frequent passes opposite 
to the patient's face, shoulders, arms ; the points of the 
fingers being held as near the patient as possible without 
touching. 

It is easy, theoretically, to explain the beneficial results 
which follow from the daily induction of trance for an 
hour or so, in various forms of disorder of the nervous 
system, — in epilepsy, — in tic-doloreux, — in nervous palsy, 
and the like. As long as the state of trance is main- 
tained, so long is the nervous system in a state of repose. 
It is more or less completely put out of gear. It experi- 
ences the same relief which a sprained joint feels when 
you dispose it in a relaxed position on a pillow. A 
chance is thus given to the strained nerves of recovering 
their tone of health ; and it is wonderful how many cases 
of nervous disorder get well at once through these simple 
means. As it is certain that there is no disease in which 
the nervous system is not primarily or secondarily implica- 
ted, it is impossible to foresee what will prove the limit to 
the beneficial application of mesmerism in medical practice. 



MESMERISM. 163 

In operative surgery the art is not less available. In 
trance the patient is insensible, and a limb may be re- 
moved without the operation exciting disturbance of any 
kind. And what is equally important, in all the after- 
treatment, at every dressing, the process of mesmerizing 
may be resorted to again, with no possible disadvantage, 
but being rather soothing and useful to the patient, in- 
dependently of the extinction of the dread and suffering 
of pain. The first instance in which an operation was 
performed on a patient in this state was the celebrated 
case of Madame Plan tin. It occurred twenty years ago. 
The lady was sixty-four years of age, and laboured under 
scirrhus of the breast. She was prepared for the opera- 
tion by M. Chapelain, who on several successive days 
threw her into trance by the ordinary mesmeric manipu- 
lations. She was then like an ordinary sleep-walker, and 
would converse with indifference about the contemplated 
operation, the idea of which, when she was in her natural 
state, filled her with terror. The operation of removing 
the diseased breast was performed at Paris on the 12th 
of April, 1829, by M. Jules Cloquet; it lasted from ten 
to twelve minutes. During the whole of this time the 
patient, in her trance, conversed calmly with M. Cloquet, 
and exhibited not the slightest sign of suffering. Her 
expression of countenance did not change ; nor was the 
voice, the breathing, or the pulse at all affected. After 
the wound was dressed, the patient was awakened from 
the trance, when on learning that the operation was over, 
and seeing her children round her, Madame Plantin was 
affected with considerable emotion, whereupon M. Cha- 
pelain, to compose her, put her back into the state of 
trance. 

I copy the above particulars from Dr. Foissac's Rap- 



164 MESMERISM. 

jjorts et Discussions de VAcademie Rot/ale de Medecine 
sur le Magnetism Animal. — Paris, 1833. My friend, 
Dr. Warren, of Boston, informed me that, being at Paris, 
he had asked M. Jules Cloquet if the story were true. 
M. Cloquet answered, "Perfectly/' "Then why," said 
Dr. Warren, "have you not repeated the practice?" 
M. Cloquet replied "that he had not dared; that the 
prejudice against mesmerism was so strong at Paris that 
he probably would have lost his reputation and his income 
by so doing." 

It has been mentioned that in ordinary trance the 
mind appears to gain new powers. For a long time we 
had to trust. to the chance turning up of cases of spon- 
taneous trance, in the experience of physicians of obser- 
vation, for any light we could hope would be thrown on 
those extraordinary phenomena; now we possess around 
us, on every side, adequate opportunities for completely 
elucidating these events, if we please to employ them. 
The philosopher, when his speculations suggest a new 
question to be put, can summon the attendance of a 
trance as easily as the Jupiter of the Iliad summoned a 
dream ; or, looking out for two or three cases to which 
the induction of trance may be beneficial, the physician 
may have in his house subjects for perpetual reference 
and daily experiment. 

A gentleman, with whom I have long been well ac- 
quainted, formanyyears chairman of the Quarter Sessions 
in a northern county, of which during a late year he was 
high sheriff, has, like M. de Puysegur, amused some of 
his leisure hours, and benevolently done not a little 
good, by taking the trouble of mesmerizing invalids, 
whom he has thus restored to health. In constant cor- 
respondence with, and occasionally having the pleasure 



MESMERISM. 165 

of seeing this gentleman, I have learned from him the 
common course in which the new powers of the mind, 
which belong to trance, are developed under its artificial 
induction. The sketch which I propose to give of this 
subject will be taken from his descriptions, which, I 
should observe, tally in all essential points with what I 
meet with in French and German authors. The little 
that I have myself seen of the matter, I will mention 
preliminarily. 

In some, instead of trance, a common fit of hysterics 
is produced ; in others, slight headache, and a sense of 
weight on the eyebrows, and difficulty of raising the eye- 
lids, supervene. 

In one young woman, whom I saw mesmerised for the 
first time by Dupotet, nothing resulted but a sense of 
pricking and tingling wherever he pointed with his hand ; 
and her arm, on one or two occasions, jumped in the 
most natural and conclusive manner when, her eyes being 
covered, he directed his outstretched finger to it. 

A gentleman, about thirty years of age, when the mes- 
meriser held his outstretched hands pointed to his head, 
experienced no disposition to sleep; but in two or three 
minutes he began to shake his head and twist his features 
about; at last, his head was jerked from side to side, and 
forwards and backwards, with a violence that looked 
alarming. But he said, when it was over, that the motion 
had not been unpleasant ; that he had moved in a sort 
voluntarily — although he could not refrain from it. If 
the hands of the operator were pointed to his arm instead 
of his head, the same violent jerks ensued, and gradually 
extended to the whole body. I asked him to try to resist 
the influence, by holding his arm out in strong muscular 
tension. This had the effect of retarding the attack of 
15 



166 MESMERISM. 

the jerks, but, when it came on, it was more violent than 
usual. I have lately seen another similar case. The 
seizure is evidently a form of St. Veitz's dance brought 
out by the operation of the Od force. In neither of these 
two cases could trance be induced. • 

A servant of mine, aged about twenty-five, was mes- 
merized by Lafontaine, for a full half-hour, and, no effect 
appearing to be produced, I tol'd him he might rise from 
the chair and leave us. On getting up he looked uneasy, 
and said his arms were numb. They were perfectly 
paralyzed from the elbows downwards, and numb to the 
shoulders. This was the more satisfactory, that neither 
the man himself, nor Lafontaine, nor the four or five 
spectators, expected this result. The operator trium- 
phantly drew a pin and stuck it into the man's hand, 
which bled, but had no feeling. Then heedlessly, to 
show it gave pain, Lafontaine stuck the pin into the 
man's thigh, whose flashing eye, and half suppressed 
growl, denoted that the aggression would certainly have 
been returned by another, had the arm which should have 
done it not been really powerless. However, M. Lafon- 
taine made peace with the man, by restoring him the use 
and feeling of his arms. This was done by dusting them, 
as it were, by quick transverse motions of his extended 
hands. In five minutes nothing remained of the palsy 
but a slight stiffness, which gradually wore off in the 
course of the evening. 

Occasionally partial tonic spasm (improperly termed 
catalepsy, for it is of the nature of catochus, and the 
rigidity attending it is absolute) supervenes as the only 
consequence of mesmerising a limb. This result, which 
is not less alarming to the patient who has not been led 
to expect it than the preceding, may be got rid of in the 



MESMERISM. 1G7 

same way. If you point with your fingers to the rigid 
muscles, or again, as it were, dust the limb with brisk 
transverse passes, or breathe upon it, the stiffness is 
thawed and disappears. Trance is seldom induced by 
mesmeric passes without more or less partial muscular 
rigidity of this kind supervening ; it always yields to the 
means which have been mentioned. 

Genuine and ordinary trance I have seen produced by 
the same manipulations in from three minutes to half- 
an-hour. The patient's eyelids have dropped, he has 
appeared on the point of sleeping, but he has not sunk 
back upon his chair ; then he has continued to sit upright 
— seemingly perfectly insensible to the loudest sounds, 
or the acutest and most startling impressions on the 
sense of touch. The pulse is commonly a little increased 
in frequency ; the breathing is sometimes heavier than 
usual. 

Occasionally, as in Victor's case, the patient quickly 
and spontaneously emerges from the state of trance-sleep 
into trance half-waking — a rapidity of development which 
I am persuaded occurs much more frequently among the 
French than with the English or Germans. English 
patients, especially, for the most part require a long 
course of education, many sittings, to have the same 
powers drawn out. And these are by far the most in- 
teresting cases. I will describe, from Mr. Williamson's 
account, the course he has usually followed in developing 
his patient's powers, and the order in which they have 
manifested themselves. 

On the first day, perhaps, nothing can be elicited. 
But after some minutes, the stupor seems, as it were, 
less embarrassing to the patient, who appears less heavily 
slumbrous, and breathes lighter again : or it may be the 



168 MESMERISM. 

reverse, particularly if the patient is epileptic ; after a 
little, the breathing may be deeper, the state one of less 
composure. Pointing with the hands to the pit of the 
stomach, laying the hands upon the shoulders, and slowly 
moving them along the arms down to the hands, the 
whole with the utmost quietude and composure on the 
part of the operator, will dispel this oppression. 

And the interest of the first sitting is confined to the 
process of awakening the patient, which is one of the 
most marvellous phenomena of the whole. The operator 
lays his two thumbs on the space between the eyebrows, 
and as it were vigorously smooths or irons the eyebrows, 
rubbing them from within outwards seven or eight times. 
Upon this, the patient probably raises his head and his 
eyebrows, and draws a deeper breath, as if he would 
yawn ; he is half awake, and blowing upon the eyelids, 
or the repetition of the previous operation, or dusting 
the forehead by smart transverse wavings of the hand, 
or blowing upon it, causes the patient's countenance to 
become animated; the eyelids open, he looks about him, 
recognises you, and begins to speak. If any feeling of 
heaviness remains, any weight or pain of the forehead, 
another repetition of the same manipulations sets all 
right. And yet this patient would not have been awa- 
kened if a gun had been fired at his ear, or his arm had 
been cut off. 

At the next sitting, or the next to that, the living 
statue begins to wake in its tranced life. The operator 
holds one hand over the opposite hand of his patient, and 
makes as if he would draw the patient's hand upwards, 
raising his own with short successive jerks, yet not too 
abrupt. Then the patient's hand begins to follow his ; 
and, often having ascended some inches, stops in the air 



MESMERISM. > 169 

catochally. This fixed state is always relieved by trans- 
verse brushings with the hand, or by breathing in addi- 
tion, on the rigid limb. And it is most curious to see 
the whole bodily frame, over which spasmodic rigidness 
may have crept, thus thawed joint by joint. Then the 
first effect shown commonly is this motion, the patient's 
hand following the operator's. At the same sitting he 
begins to hear, and there is intelligence in his counte- 
nance when the operator pronounces his name: perhaps 
his lips move, and he begins to answer pertinently, as in 
ordinary sleep-walking. But he hears the operator alone 
best, and him even in a whisper. Your voice, if you 
shout, he does not hear: unless you take the operator's 
hand, and then he hears you too. In general, however, 
now the proximity of others seems in some way to be 
sensible to him; and he appears uneasy when they crowd 
close upon him. It seems that the force of the relation 
between the operator and his patient naturally goes on 
increasing, as the powers of the sleep-walker are deve- 
loped; but that this is not necessarily the case, and 
depends upon its being encouraged by much commerce 
between them, and the exclusion of others from joining 
in this trance-communion. 

And now the patient — beginning to wake in trance, 
hearing and answering the questions of the operator, 
moving each limb, or rising even, as the operator's hand 
is raised to draw him into obedient following — enters into 
a new relation with his mesmeriser. He adopts sympa- 
thetically every voluntary movement of the other. When 
the latter rises from his chair, he rises ; when he sits 
down, he sits down: if he bows, he bows; if he make a 
grimace, he makes the same. Yet his eyes are closed. 
He certainly does not see. His mind has interpenetrated 

15* 



170 MESMERISM. 

to a small extent the nervous system of the operator ; and 
is in relation with his voluntary nerves and the anterior 
half of his cranio-spinal chord. (These are the organs 
by which the impulse to voluntary motion is conveyed 
and originated.) Further into the other's being he has 
not yet got. So he does not what the other thinks of, or 
wishes him to do: but only what the other either does, 
or goes through the mental part of doing. So Victor 
sang the air which M. de Puysegur only mentally hummed. 

The next strange phenomenon marks that the mind 
of the entranced patient has interpenetrated the nervous 
system of the other a step farther, and is in relation 
besides with the posterior half of the cranio-spinal chord 
and its nerves. For now the entranced person, who has 
no feeling, or taste, or smell of his own, feels, tastes, and 
smells every thing that is made to tell on the senses of the 
operator. If mustard or sugar be put in his own mouth, 
he seems not to know that they are there ; if mustard is 
placed on the tongue of the operator, the entranced per- 
son expresses great disgust, and tries as if to spit it out. 
The same with bodily pain. If you pluck a hair from 
the operator's head, the other complains of the pain you 
give him. ^ 

To state in the closest way what has happened: The 
phenomena of sympathetic motion and sympathetic sen- 
sation thus displayed are exactly such as might be expect- 
ed to follow, if the mind or conscious principle of the 
entranced person were brought into relation with the 
cranio-spinal chord of the operator and its nerves, and 
with no farther portion of his nervous system. Later, it 
will be seen, the interpenetration can extend farther. 

But, before this happens, a new phenomenon manifests 
itself, not of a sympathetic character. The operator 



MESMERISM. 171 

contrives to wake the entranced person to the knowledge 
that he possesses new faculties. He develops in him new 
organs of sensation, or rather helps to hasten his recog- 
nition of their possession. 

It is to be observed, however, that several who can be 
entranced cannot be brought as far as the present step. 
Others make a tantalizing half-advance towards reaching 
it thus, and then stop. They are asked, — "Do you see 
any thing?" After some days, at length they answer 
"Yes." "What?" "Alight." " Where is the light ?" 
Then they intimate its place to be either before them, or 
to one side, or above or behind them. And they describe 
the colour of the light, which is commonly yellowish. 
And each day it is pointed to in the same direction, and 
is seen equally whether the room be light or dark. Their 
eyes in the mean time are closed. And here with many 
the phenomenon stops. Others in this light now begin 
to discern objects held in the direction in which they see 
it. The range of this new visual organ, and the condi- 
tions under which it acts, are different in different in- 
stances. Sometimes the object must be close, sometimes 
it is best seen at a short distance; but seen it is. The 
following experiment, which is decisive, was made at my 
suggestion : A gentleman standing behind the entranced 
person held behind him a pack of cards, from which he 
drew several in succession, and, without seeing them 
himself, presented them to the new visual organ of the 
patient. In each case she named the card right. The 
decree of light suited to this new mode of vision is vari- 
able: sometimes bright daylight is best; sometimes they 
prefer a moderate light. Some distinguish figure and 
colour when the room is so dark that the bystanders can 
distinguish neither. 



172 MESMERISM. 

These observations, which are, however, only in con- 
formity with similar evidence from many other quarters, 
I give on the authority of Mr. J. W. Williamson of 
Wickham, the gentleman to whom I have before alluded. 
The following accidental features, attending the mani- 
festation of transposed senses, were further observed by 
Mr. Williamson : — 

In most of the persons in whom Mr. Williamson has 
brought out transposed vision, the faculty has been lo- 
cated in a small surface of the scalp behind the left ear ; 
and to see objects well, the patient has held them at the 
distance of five or six inches from and opposite to this 
spot. One young woman, who had been temporarily set 
aside under affliction for the loss of a relative, on the ex- 
periments being resumed, saw from all parts of the head, 
but confusedly, a broken and incomplete picture. On a 
subsequent day, she saw with the right side of her head. 
Afterwards the visual sense returned to its first place. 

In one young person, the new sentient organ was on 
the top of her head, and to see objects she required them 
to be brought into contact with it. Once that she had a 
rheumatic cold and tenderness of the scalp, she said, 
when entranced, putting her hand to the crown of her 
head, that the cold had made her eyes sore. 

One person saw objects best when placed behind her 
at the distance of seven or eight feet. 

The governess in a neighbouring family was mesmerised 
for tic-doloureux. In seven sittings she was cured. At 
the second sitting, in her trance she exhibited displaced 
sensation. She could read with her finger-ends; her way 
was to hold the book open against her chest, the back of 
the book towards her, with one hand; then she passed a 
finger of the other hand slowly over each word, to read 
it. 



MESMERISM. 173 

The part-physical character of these phenomena is 
shown by an observation of Dr. Petetin's on the first of 
his cataleptic patients. At the time that the patient 
heard with the pit of her stomach, he found that if with 
the fingers of one, say the left hand, he touched the pit 
of her stomach, and whispered to the fingers of his right 
hand, the patient heard him; but if the left hand was 
removed to the smallest possible distance from the patient, 
the contact being interrupted, she no longer heard him. 
Then he made a chain of seven persons, holding each 
other's hands. The nearest to the patient was her sister, 
who touched the pit of her stomach ; at the other end 
was Dr. Petetin, who whispered to his fingers, and was 
heard. A cane was then introduced as part of the cir- 
cuit — the patient still heard; but if a stick of sealing- 
wax, or a glass rod, was substituted for it, or if one of 
the party wore silk gloves, the patient could no longer 
hear Dr. Petetin. Without close observation, what is 
physical in the phenomena which have thus engaged us 
is liable to be overlooked ; and the bystander may class 
them as examples of lucidity, which they are not. Or- 
ganic co-operation may be traced in them all. Thus, 
among Mr. Williamson's earlier experiments, he tried, 
sitting before the entranced person, (who had shown no 
lucidity,) by imaging strongly to himself a white horse, 
to force the image into her mind. When, being awakened, 
she had left the room, on her way she said to her fellow- 
servant, "What was it master said to me about a white 
horse? I am sure he said something." Mr. Williamson, 
on learning the maid's remark, supposed his mental ope- 
ration had been successful. But the same experiment, 
when repeated, mostly failed. At last he found out why : 
It only succeeded when, in his mental urgency, he half 



174 MESMERISM. 

made in his own throat the motions of the sounds that 
expressed the mental image. Then, and then only, the 
patient caught it. For her mind could not read his 
thoughts, but as yet had penetrated the inferior part of 
the nervous system only, the cranio-spinal cord; and, 
being there, had adopted sympathetically the voluntary 
impulses that were there performed; so she half-moved 
the muscles of her own vocal organs to express the 
idea, and from that — its imperfect expression — received 
it into her thoughts. No doubt the phenomenon of Vic- 
tor's singing the words to M. de Puysegur's mentally 
hummed air was the same with the above, and not one of 
mesmeric lucidity, the subject which we are now approach- 
ing. 

But I pause; — and go no further. 

For my object in these Letters, generally, has been to 
establish principles. And the phenomena of lucidity de- 
veloped in artificial trance have been only the same as, 
and have not been as yet made more of than, the lucidity 
of catalepsy. No further principle has yet emerged from 
their study; and my special object in this Letter has been 
to persuade the opponents of mesmerism to do it justice ; 
and I think I am most likely to attain my end by not at- 
tempting to prove too much. 

So that nothing remains for me to do, but to observe 
the form in which these Letters were originally shaped, in 
recollection of the pleasant hours which the residence of 
your family at Boppard, during the winter of 1844-5, 
caused me, and to say finally, 

Dear Archy, Farewell. 






SUPPLEMENTAL. 175 



LETTER XL 

Supplemental. — Abnormal neLiro-psychical relation- — Cautions ne- 
cessary in receiving trance communications — Trance-visiting — 
Mesmerising at a distance, and by the will — Mesmeric diagnosis 
and treatment of disease — Prevision — Ultra-vital vision. 

The principal alterations made in "the Letters" for 
the present edition comprise an expansion of my account 
of "trances of spontaneous occurrence/' and the intro- 
duction of greater precision into our elementary concep- 
tions of the relations of the mind and nervous system. 

Letters V., VI., VII., and VIIL, establish that the most 
startling phenomena in popular superstitions, and the most 
wonderful performances by mesmerised persons, are but 
repetitions of events, the occurrence of which, as symp- 
toms of, or as constituting, certain rare forms of nervous 
attacks, have been independently authenticated and put 
on record by physicians of credit. Letters II. and IX. 
exemplify the mode in which superstition has dressed up 
trance-phenomena; as letters III. and IV. display the 
contributions she has levied on sensorial illusions, the Od 
force, and normal exoneural psychical phenomena. Let- 
ter X. describes the method of inducing trances artifi- 
cially, whereby they may be reproduced at pleasure, 
either in the interests of philosophical inquiry, or for im- 
portant practical purposes. 

I dedicate the present Letter to the reconsideration of 
the most knotty points already handled, and to the in- 
vestigation of a few other questions, the solution of which 
is not less difficult. 



176 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

I. Hypothesis of an Abnormal Psychico-neural Rela- 
tion as the essence of trance. — I admit that it is a very 
clumsy expedient to assume that the mind can, as it were, 
get loose in the living body, and, while remaining there 
in a partially new alliance, exercise some of its faculties 
in unaccustomed organs — which organs lose, for the same 
time, their normal participation in consciousness; and 
farther, that the mind can, partially indeed, but so com- 
pletely disengage itself from the living body, that its 
powers of apprehension may range with what we are ac- 
customed to consider the properties of free spirit, un- 
limitedly as to space and time. I adopt the hypothesis 
upon compulsion — that is to say, because I see no other 
way of accounting for the most remarkable trance-phe- 
nomena. In due time, it is to be expected that a simple 
inductive expression of the facts will take the place of 
my hypothetical explanation. But not the less may the 
latter, crude as it is, prove of temporary use, by bringing 
together in a connected view many new and diversified 
phenomena, and planting the subject in a position favour- 
able for scientific scrutiny. 

Let me arrange, in their most persuasive order, the 
facts which seem to justify the hypothesis above enun- 
ciated. 

1. In many cases of waking-trance, the patient does 
not see with his eyes, hear with his ears, nor taste with 
his tongue, and the sense of touch appears to have de- 
serted the skin. At the same time, the patient sees, hears, 
and tastes things applied to the pit of the stomach, or 
sees and hears with the back of the head, or tips of the 
fingers. 

2. In the first imperfect trance-waking from initiatory 
trance, the patient's apprehension of sensuous impressions 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 177 

often appears to have entirely deserted his own body, and 
to be in relation with the sentient apparatus in his mes- 
meriser's frame — for, if you pull his hair, or put mustard 
in his mouth, he does not feel either ; but he is actually 
alive to the sensations which these impressions excite, if 
the hair of the mesmeriser is pulled, or mustard placed 
on the mesmeriser's tongue. The sensations excited thus 
in the mesmeriser, and these alone, the entranced^person 
realizes as his own sensations. 

3. About the same time, the entranced person displays 
no will of his own, but his voluntary muscles execute the 
gestures which his mesmeriser is making, even when 
standing behind his back. His will takes its guidance 
from sympathy with the exerted will of the other. 

4. Presently, if his trance-faculties continue to be de- 
veloped, the entranced person enters into communication 
with the entire mind of his mesmeriser. His apprehen- 
sion seems to penetrate the brain of the latter, and is 
capable of reading all his thoughts. 

5. In the last three steps, the apprehension of the en- 
tranced person appears to have left his own being to the 
extent described, and to have entered into relation with 
the mind or nervous system of another person. Now, if 
the patient become still more lucid, his apprehension seems 
to range abroad through space, and to identify material 
objects, and penetrate the minds of other human beings, 
at indefinite distances. 

6. At length the entranced person displays the power 
of revealing future events — a power which, as far as it 
relates to things separate from his own bodily organiza- 
tion, or that of others, seems to me to show that his ap- 
prehension is in relation with higher spiritual natures, or 
with the Fountain of Truth itself. 

10 



178 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

In the following pages I have given examples of those 
of the powers here attributed to very lucid clairvoyantes, 
which I have not previously instanced. 

II. Transposition of the Senses. — No doubt these pheno- 
mena, irregular as they seem at present, follow a definite 
law, which has to be determined by future observations 
and experiments. Mr. Williamson found some of his 
clairvoyantes see with the back of the head, some with 
the side of the head — some best at seven inches, others 
at as many feet off. In the case which Mr. Bulteel re- 
ported to me, the lady read with her hand and fingers; 
even when he pressed a note against the back of her 
neck, she read it instantly: but in this case actual con- 
tact was necessary. In the case of a governess, artifi- 
cially brought to the state of waking-trance by Mr. Wil- 
liamson, the same faculty was observed. With one hand 
she used to hold open the book to be read, resting it 
against her chest, the pages being turned away from her : 
the contents of these she read fluently, touching the 
words with the forefinger of the other hand. In one 
very interesting case, which I witnessed here in the au- 
tumn of 1849, the young lady, clairvoyant through mes- 
merism, sitting in the corner of a sofa, something re- 
clined, would have seen, had she peeped through a linear 
aperture between her seemingly closed eyelids, the lower 
half of things only. As it was, the reverse was the fact; 
and when we asked her what she saw, she told us the 
cornice and upper part of the room. Then, without 
saying any thing, I raised my cap upon my stick to within 
her declared range of trance-vision; she exclaimed, "Ah, 
Guilleaume Tell!" Her mother, whom she heard speak, 
but had not hitherto seen, in this trance, she recoguised 



SUPPLEIVIENTAL. 179 

at once, when she stood up upon a chair. To read, in this 
trance, appeared a very painful effort to her ; but she 
was certainly able to make out some words when she 
pressed a written paper against her forehead. It was 
evident that she could now visually discern things by some 
new faculty of apprehension localized there. To enable 
her to see things at a few feet distance, they had equally 
to be placed opposite to her forehead. In another case, 
in which the girl, when entranced, certainly saw with the 
knuckles of one hand, on smearing the back of that hand 
with ink, she could no longer see with it. 

The above instances show how various are the features 
attending the transposition of one sense alone in waking 
trance ; and they suggest a multitude of experiments. I 
remember, in 1838, on communicating facts of this kind 
to a clear-headed practical man, he raised this objection 
to their credibility: "If we can see without eyes, why 
has the Creator given us eyes!" The objection is spe- 
cious enough, but it admits of an obvious answer. The 
state of trance is one of disease, transient and tempora- 
ry ; it is during its persistence only that this new power 
of apprehension is manifested. In our natural state, the 
mind is intended to operate and try experiences in sub- 
ordination to matter, and through definite material or- 
gans, in which it is, in truth, imprisoned. Such is the 
law of our normal mortal being. Accordingly, when the 
trance is over, and the mind has returned to its normal 
relations with the body, all its trance-apprehensions 
are forgotten by it — they form no part of our moral 
life. 

III. Sources of Error in the communications of en- 
tranced persons, — I put aside cases of deliberate decep- 



180 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

tion ;" "but when persons are really entranced, they are 
liable, in various ways, to be deceived themselves, and to 
deceive^others, as to the value of their revealments. 
There is often, in waking trance, a great vivacity and 
disposition to be communicative from the first. Those, 
again, who have frequently been thrown into trance, 
and have become familiar with their new condition, are 
generally anxious to shine in it, and make a display. 
This disposition is further heightened when the entranced 
person expects to be rewarded for his performance. 

1. When indulging their lively fancy, they are liable 
to have a sort of waking dream, during which they de- 
scribe imaginary scenes with the precision and minute- 
ness of reality, and represent them as actual, passing at 
some place they name. 

2. They are liable to recall past impressions, and to 
deliver bits of old conclusions for intuitions. 

3. They are liable to adopt the thoughts of others who 
may be near them, especially those of their mesmeriser, 
and to deliver them as trance-revelations. 

4. In one instance which came to my knowledge, a 
young lady, previously unacquainted with mathematics 
or astronomy, would, when entranced, and sitting with 
her mother and sister, write fluently off pages of an as- 
tronomical treatise, calculations, diagrams, and all. She 
averred and believed in her entranced state — for, when 
awake, it was all a mystery to her — that this perform- 
ance was the product of an intuition. Her manuscript 
was afterwards found to run word for word with an arti- 
cle in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. That book, how- 
ever, stood in the library, in a remote part of the house. 
She certainly had it not with her when she used to scrib- 
ble its contents; nor did she remember ever having 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 181 

looked into it, awake or asleep. She said — when en- 
tranced, and this had been found out — that she believed 
she read the book as it stood in the library. 

5. With some imperfectly lucid patients, the exercise 
of their new faculties appears to be fatiguing, and to call 
for great exertion. So they are occasionally with diffi- 
culty led to answer at all; and then when inconsiderate- 
ly pressed, they are tempted to say any thing, just to be 
left tranquil. 

It is difficult to say how the preceding sources of error 
are to be effectually guarded against. Possibly, by rigid 
training from the first, the patient might be brought to 
distinguish false promptings from genuine intuitions. 
But even the latter vary in lucidity and certainty. This 
admission was made to a friend of mine by M. Alexis, 
the celebrated Parisian clairvoyante. The reader cannot 
fail to be interested by the following account, given by 
M. Alexis when entranced, of his own powers, and their 
mode of operation : — 

"Pour voir des objets eloignes," observed M. Alexis, 
"mon ame ne se degage pas de mon corps. C'est ma 
volonte qui derige mon ame, mon esprit, sans sortir de 
cette chambre ou je suis. Si mon ame sortit, je serais 
mort ; c'est ma volonte. Ma volonte suffit pour aneantir 
pour quelque terns la matiere. Ainsi quand cette volonte 
est en jeu, la boite materielle de mon individu n'est plus. 
Les murs, Fespace, et meme le tems, n'existent plus. 
Mais ce n'est qu'un reve plus ou moins lucide. Quelque- 
fois ma vue est meilleure qu'a d'autres. Ma vue n'est 
jamais la meme. line fois je suis dispose pour voir une 
sorte de choses, et une autre fois une autre sorte. En 
regardant votre chambre dans un quartier eloigne d'ici, 
je ne vois pas les rues ni les maisons intermediates. La 

16* 



182 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

seule chose (alors) qui est dans la pensee est la personne 
qui me parle. Je vois les objets (Tune maniere plus in- 
complete que par mes sens, moins sure. II serait impos- 
sible de fair comprendre comment je vois. Plus il y a 
de 1' attraction — plus j'eprouve de 1' attraction aux objets 
que je veux voir, ou qui me touche — plus il y a de 
lumiere; plus j'eprouve de repulsion, plus il y a de 
t6nebres." 

IV. Of the Different Qualities of Od in different in- 
dividuals. — Von Reichenbach observed the Od light to 
have different colours under different circumstances, and 
that, while Od-negative produces the sensation of a draft 
of cool air, Od positive produces a sense as of a draft of 
warm air. An easy way to verify the last phenomenon 
is to beg some one to hold the forefinger of the right 
hand pointed to your left palm, at a quarter of an inch 
distance, and afterwards his left forefinger to your right 
palm, when the two sensations, and their difference, are 
appreciable by the majority of persons. 

Persons entranced by mesmeric procedures are often 
keenly alive to the above impressions. They see light 
emanating from the finger-tips of the mesmeriser, and 
feel an agreeable afflatus from his manipulations. Others 
who approach them affect them in different ways — some 
not disagreeably, while others excite a chilly, shivering 
feeling, and the patient begs they will keep off from 
him. 

A gentleman narrated to me the following case. He 
had been for months in anxious attendance upon a bro- 
ther who was in very delicate health, and exquisitely 
sensitive to mesmerism. My friend used himself to mes- 
merise his brother ; but he found it necessary, in order 
to soothe and not excite him by the passes, to cover the 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 183 

patient with a folded blanket, so as to dull the agency 
of his Od-emanation. There was but another person, of 
several who had been tried, whose hand the brother could 
bear at all; this was a maid-servant, who herself was 
highly susceptible, and became entranced. She said that 
she perceived, when entranced, the suitableness of her 
influence, and that of the brother, to the patient; and 
she used the singular expression, that they were nearly 
of a colour. She said that the patient's Od-emanation 
was of a pink colour, and that the brother's was a brick 
colour— a flatter, deeper, red; and she endeavoured to 
find some one else with the same coloured Od to suit her 
master. 

In some experiments made at Dr. Leighton's house in 
• Gower Street, I remember it was distinctly proved that 
each of the experimenters produced different effects on 
the same person. The patient was one of the Okeys, of 
mesmeric celebrity. The party consisted of Dr. Elliot- 
son, Mr. Wheatstone, Dr. Grant, Mr. Kiernan, and some 
others. Mr. Wheatstone tabulated the results. Each of 
us mesmerised a sovereign; and it was found that on 
each trial the trance-coma, which contact with the thus 
mesmerised gold induced, had a characteristic duration 
for each of us. Is it possible that each living person has 
his distinguishable measure of Od, either in intensity or 
quality ? 

V. The Od-Force is the usual channel of establishing 
mesmeric relation. — I take it for granted that the Od- 
force — the existence and some of the properties of which 
have been inductively ascertained by Von Reichenbach 
— is the same agent with that which Mesmer assumed to 
be the instrument in his operations. Then, in support 



184 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

of the above proposition, I cite two instances. Mr. Wil- 
liamson, at my request, mesmerised and entranced the 
Eev. Mr. Fox at Weilbach, in the autumn of 1847. It 
was the second sitting, and Mr. Fox was beginning to 
pass from the initiatory stage of trance into trance half- 
waking. Mr. Williamson addressed him, and he returned 
an answer. Other parties in the room, including myself, 
then addressed Mr. Fox, and he seemed not to hear one 
of us. Then Mr. Williamson gave me his hand, and I 
again spoke to Mr. Fox ; he then heard me, and spoke 
in answer. When, having left go Mr. Williamson's hand, 
I spoke again to Mr. Fox, he heard me not. On my 
renewing contact with Mr. Williamson, Mr. Fox heard 
me again. He heard me as long as I was brought into 
relation with him, and that relation was clearly due to 
the establishment of an Od-current between myself and 
Mr. Williamson, with whom Mr. Fox was already in 
trance-relation. Every one who has seen something of 
Mesmerism will recognise in the above story one of its 
commonest phenomena. 

But a more conclusive instance still has been already 
mentioned in Letter X. M. Petetin made a chain of 
seven persons holding hands, the seventh holding the 
hand of a cataleptic patient, who at that time heard by 
her fingers only. When Dr. Petetin spoke to the fingers 
of the first, t. e. the most remote, person of the chain, the 
cataleptic person heard him as well as if he had spoken, to 
her own fingers. Even when a stick was made to form 
part of the circuit, the cataleptic still heard Dr. Petetin's 
whisper, uttered at the other end of the chain. Not so, 
however, if one of the parties forming the chain wore silk 
gloves. 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 185 

VI. Trance-Identification of persons at a distance by 
means of material objects. — A very lucid clairvoyante, 
her eyes being bandaged, recognises not the less, with- 
out preparation or effort, every acquaintance present in 
the room; describes their dress, the contents of their 
purses, or of letters in their pockets, and reads their in- 
nermost thoughts. An ordinary clairvoyante usually re- 
quires the contact of the party's hand with whom it is 
proposed to bring her into trance-relation; then only 
does she first know any thing about her new patient. It 
cannot be doubted that, in the latter case, it is the esta- 
blishment of an Ocl-eurrent between the two that enables 
the mind of the clairvoyante to penetrate the interior 
being of the visiter, — just as, in the humblest effects of 
common mesmerism, a relation is sensibly established be- 
tween the party entranced and her mesmeriser, through 
the Od- current which he had previously directed upon 
her, in order to produce the trance. So far, all is theo- 
retically clear enough. 

But how is the establishment of the same relation be- 
tween the clairvoyante and a party wholly unknown to 
her, and residing many miles off, to be explained, when 
the only visible medium of physical connexion employed 
has been a lock of hair or a letter written by the distant 
party, and placed in the hands of the clairvoyante? 
Let me begin by giving the explanation, and after- 
wards exemplify the phenomenon out of my own expe- 
rience. 

I conceive that the lock of hair, or the letter on which 
his hand has rested, is charged with the Od-fluid ema- 
nating from the distant person ; and that the clairvoy- 
ante measures exactly the force and quality of this dose 
of Od, and, as it were, individualizes it. Then, using 



186 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

this clue, distance being annihilated to the entranced 
mind, it seeks for, or is drawn towards, whatever there 
is more of this same individual Od quality any where in 
space. When that is found, the party sought is identi- 
fied, and brought into relation with the clairvoyante, who 
proceeds forthwith to tell all about him. 

Now for an exemplification of this marvellous pheno- 
menon. Being at Boppard, a letter of mine addressed 
to a friend in Paris was by him put into the hands of M. 
Alexis, who was asked to describe me. M. Alexis told 
at once my age and stature, my disposition, and my ill- 
ness; how that I am entirely crippled, and at that time 
of the day, half-past eleven, a.m. was in bed. All this, 
to be sure, M. Alexis might have read in my friend's 
mind, without going farther. But, he added, this gentle- 
man lives on the sea-coast. My friend denied the asser- 
tion ; but M. Alexis continued very positive that he was 
right. Now, most oddly, the Rhine, on the banks of 
which I resided then, is at Boppard the boundary of 
Prussia ; and I never cross it, or visit Nassau, but I am 
in the habit of sitting on the bank, listening to the break- 
ing of the surge, which the passing steamers create, 
and which exactly resembles the murmur of the sea. 
This very mistake of M. Alexis helped to convince me 
that this performance of his was genuine. However, 
being stoutly contradicted by my friend, M. Alexis re- 
considered the matter, and said, "No; he does not live 
on the sea-coast, but on the Rhine, twenty leagues from 
Frankfort." This answer was exact. But there was 
another point which M. Alexis hit with curious felicity. 
I should observe that this friend was one of a few months' 
date, who had no means of comparing what I am with what 
I was formerly. But it had happened that I had written. 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 187 

not to him, but to a friend resident in England, about 
the same time, that, ill as I was, my mind was singularly 
clear and active, and that I regarded the fact as a sign 
my end was at hand ; that the mental brightness proba- 
bly resembled the flaring-up of a rushlight before it goes 
out. Well, M. Alexis, adverting to my condition, ob- 
served that I was extremely weak, and had suffered much 
from irritation of the nerves; — facts true enough, but 
which certainly would not have led him to infer the ex- 
istence of that clearness of mind which I had myself re- 
marked. Nevertheless, strangely added M. Alexis, " Le 
morale n'en est pas atteint; au contraire, l'esprit est plus 
degage et plus vif qu'auparavant." I can therefore en- 
tertain no doubt, that at four hundred miles' distance, 
merely by handling a recent letter from me, M. Alexis 
had identified me as its writer, through the Od-fluid the let- 
ter conveyed; and had truly penetrated my physical and 
mental being so completely, that most that was import- 
ant in my story lay distinctly revealed before him. 

VII. Mental Travelling by clairvoy antes. — Let me be- 
gin with an instance. The following extract from the 
Zoist contains a very interesting narrative by Lord Ducie, 
which is exactly to the point : 

" In the highest departments or phenomena of mes- 
merism, he for a long time was a disbeliever, and could 
not bring himself to believe in the power of reading with 
the eyes bandaged, or of mental travelling ; at length, 
however, he was convinced of the truth of those powers, 
and that, too, in so curious and unexpected a way, that 
there could have been no possibility of deception. It 
happened that he had to call upon a surgeon on business, 
and when he was there the surgeon said to him, ' You 



188 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

have never seen my little clairvoyante.' He replied that 
he never had, and should like to see her very much. He 
was invited to call the next day, but upon his replying 
that he should be obliged to leave town that evening, he 
said, ' Well, you can come in at once. I am obliged to 
go out ; but I will ring the bell for her, and put her to 
sleep, and you can ask her any questions you please.' 
He (Lord Ducie) accordingly went in. He had never 
been in the house in his life before, and the girl could 
have known nothing of him. The bell was rung ; the 
clairvoyante appeared : the surgeon, without a word pass- 
ing, put her to sleep, and then he put on his hat and left 
the room. He (Lord Ducie) had before seen something 
of mesmerism, and he sat by her, took her hand, and 
asked her if she felt able to travel. She replied, 'Yes;' 
and he asked her if she had ever been in Gloucestershire, 
to which she answered that she had not, but should very 
much like to go there, as she had not been in the country 
for six years : she was a girl of about seventeen years 
old. He told her that she should go with him, for he 
wanted her to see his farm. They travelled (mentally) 
by the railroad very comfortably together, and then (in 
his imagination) got into a fly and proceeded to his house. 
He asked her what she saw; and she replied, ' I see an 
iron gate and a curious old house.' He asked her, 
4 How do you get to it?' she replied, i By this gravel- 
walk;' which was quite correct. He asked her how they 
went into it; and she replied, 'I see a porch — a curious 
old porch.' It was probably known to many, that his 
house, which was a curious old Elizabethan building, was 
entered by a porch, as she had described. He asked her 
what she saw on the porch, and she replied, truly, that it 
was covered with flowers. He then said, 'Now, we will 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 189 

turn in at our right hand ; what do you see in that room ?' 
She answered with great accuracy, 'I see a book case, 
and a picture on each side of it.' He told her to turn 
her back to the book case, and say what she saw on the 
other side; and she said, 'I see something shining, like 
that which soldiers wear.' She also described some old 
muskets and warlike implements which were hanging in 
the hall; and upon his asking her how they were fast- 
ened up, (meaning by what means they were secured,) 
she mistook his question, but replied, ' The muskets are 
fastened up in threes,' which was the case. He then 
asked of what substance the floors were built; and she 
said, 'Of black and white squares,' which was correct. 
He then took her to another apartment, and she very 
minutely described the ascent to it as being by four steps. 
He (Lord Ducie) told her to enter by the right door, and 
say what she saw there ; she said, ' There is a painting 
on each side of the fire-place.' Upon his asking her if 
she saw any thing particular in the fire-place, she replied, 
' Yes ; it is carved up to the ceiling,' which was quite cor- 
rect, for it was a curious old Elizabethan fireplace. There 
was at Totworth-court a singular old chestnut-tree ; and 
he told her that he wished her to see a favourite tree, 
and asked her to accompany him. He tried to deceive 
her by saying, 'Let us walk close up to it;' but she re- 
plied, 'We cannot, for there are railings round it.' He 
said, 'Yes, wooden railings;' to which she answered, 'No, 
they are of iron,' which was the case. He asked, 'What 
tree is it ?' and she replied that she had been so little in 
the country that she could not tell ; but upon his asking 
her to describe the leaf, she said, 'It is a leaf as dark as 
the geranium-leaf, large, long, and jagged at the edges.' 
He (Lord Ducie) apprehended that no one could describe 
1? 



190 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

more accurately than that the leaf of the Spanish chest- 
nut. He then told her he would take her to see his farm, 
and desired her to look over a gate into a field which he 
had in his mind, and tell him what she saw growing ; she 
replied that the field was all over green, and asked if it 
w r as potatoes, adding that she did not know much about 
the country. It was not potatoes, but turnips. He then 
said, 'Now look over this gate to the right, and tell me 
what is growing there.' She at once replied, ' There is 
nothing growing there; it is a field of wheat, but it has 
been cut and carried/ This was correct; but knowing 
that, in a part of the field, grain had been sown at a dif- 
ferent period, he asked her if she was sure that the whole 
of it had been cut. She replied, that she could not see 
the end of the field, as the land rose in the middle, which 
in truth it did. He then said to her, ' Now we are on 
the brow, can you tell me if it is cut?' She answered, 
' No, it is still growing here.' He then said to her, 
'Now, let us come to this gate — tell me where it leads to/ 
She replied, 'Into a lane.' She then went on and de- 
scribed every thing on his farm w r ith the same surprising 
accuracy; and upon his subsequently inquiring, he found 
that she was only in error in one trifling matter, for 
which error any one who had ever travelled (mentally) 
with a clairvoyante could easily account, without con- 
ceiving any breach of the truth." 

If the preceding example stood alone, or if, in parallel 
cases, no further phenomena manifested themselves, no- 
thing more would be required to explain the facts than 
to suppose that the mental fellow-traveller reads all your 
thoughts, and adopts your own imagery and impres- 
sions. But there are not wanting cases in which the fel- 
low-traveller has seen what was not in his companion's 
mind, and was at variance with his belief; while subse- 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 191 

quent inquiry has proved that the clairvoyante's unexpect- 
ed story was true. These more complicated cases prove that 
the clairvoyante actually pays a mental visit to the scene. 
But she can do more ; she can pass on to other and re- 
moter scenes and places, of which her fellow-traveller has 
no cognizance. 

For example, a young person whom Mr. Williamson 
mesmerised became clairvoyant. In this state she paid 
me a mental visit at Boppard ; and Mr. Williamson, who 
had been a resident there, was satisfied that she realized 
the scene. Afterwards I removed to Weilbach, where 
Mr. Williamson had never been. Then he proposed to 
the clairvoyante to visit me again. She reached, accord- 
ingly, in mental travelling, my former room in Boppard ; 
and expressed surprise and annoyance at not finding me 
there, and at observing others in its occupation. Mr. Wil- 
liamson proposed that she should set out, and try to find 
me. She said, "You must help me." Then Mr. Wil- 
liamson said, " We must go up the river some way, till 
we come to a great town," (Mainz.) The clairvoyante 
said she had got there. "Then," said Mr. Williamson, 
"we must now go up another river, (the Maine,) which 
joins our river at this town, and try and find Dr. Mayo 
on its banks somewhere." Then the clairvoyante said, 
"Oh, there is a large house; let us go and see it; no, 
there are two large houses — one white, the other red." 
Upon this, Mr. Williamson proposed that she should go 
into one of the two houses, and look about; she quickly 
recognised my servant, went mentally into my room, 
found me, and described a particular or two, which were 
by no means likely to be guessed by her. When Mr. 
Williamson subsequently came to visit me at Weilbach, 
he was forcibly struck with the appearance of the two 



192 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

houses, which tallied with the account given beforehand 
by the mental traveller. I have not the smallest doubt 
she mentally realized my new abode. Then, how did she 
do all this ? 

The first question is, how does the clairvoyante realize 
scenes which are familiar to her fellow-traveller ? I can- 
not help inclining to the belief that, in the ordinary per- 
ception of a place or person, the mind acts exoneurally ; 
and that our apprehension (as I have ventured to con- 
jecture in Letter V.) comes thus always into a direct re- 
lation with the place or person. There is a peculiar vi- 
vidness in a first impression, which every one must have 
observed ; there is no renewing that force of impression 
again. This fact helps my hypothesis. It will be re- 
membered again, that in Zschokke's narrative of his seer- 
gift, he never penetrated the minds of his visiters unless 
at their very first visit. It is the same, even to a certain 
extent, with mesmeric inspection of the mind. My friend, 
who consulted M. Alexis for me, consulted him likewise 
for himself more than once. At the first visit, M. Alexis 
traced an aggravation of his illness, a year before, to dis- 
tress occasioned by the death of two younger brothers at 
a short interval. On my friend's subsequent visits, M. 
Alexis marked no knowledge at all of the latter occur- 
rence. Slightly as these facts are connected, they con- 
currently strengthen my notion of the occurrence of an 
exoneural act of the mind in common perception. I sus- 
pect, I repeat, that, in visiting new places, the mind esta- 
blishes a direct relation with the scenes or persons. Then, 
in the simplest case of mental visiting, where the scene 
visited is familiar to the other party, I presume that the 
clairvoyante' s mind, being in communion with the mind of 
the other, realizes scenes which the latter has previously 
exoneurally realized. Arriving thus at the scene itself, 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 198 

the clairvoyante observes for herself, and sees what may 
be new in it, and unknown to her fellow-traveller; and 
in the same way may pursue, as in the mental visit made 
to myself at Weilbach, suggested features of the locality, 
and be thus helped to beat about in space for new objects, 
and at length to recognise among them, and mentally 
identify, persons with whom she has already arrived at a 
mental mesmeric relation. 

VIII. Mesmerising at a Distance. Mesmerising by the 
Will. — I have not heard of a case in which a person has 
been for the first time mesmerised with effect by one out 
of the room. 

Generally the mesmeriser is very near to his patient 
at the first sitting, often actually holding his hand — at 
all events so near that the Od-emanation of his person 
might be expected to reach the patient. And the patient 
is often sensible of new sensations, which he is disposed 
to attribute to the physical agency of the operator on him. 
In Mr. Braid's cases, it seemed to me clear that the effects 
were mainly brought about, as in common mesmerism, by 
his personal influence. 

Afterwards, when a patient has by use become highly 
sensitive to Od, and disposed to fall into trance, I have 
myself, by making passes in the next room, succeeded in 
producing the sleep. And I have seen, with open doors, 
mesmeric effects produced by passes at the distance of 
ninety feet. 

But with persons rendered through use extremely sus- 
ceptible of mesmeric impression, an effect may be pro- 
duced by the habitual mesmeriser of the patient at almost 
unlimited distances. The following instance is given by 
Dr. Foissac in his valuable work on mesmerism, entitled 

17* 



194 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

Rapports et Discussions but le Magnetisme Animal, 
(Paris, 1838.) Dr. Foissac speaks, in the first person, 
of an experiment made by himself on a patient of the 
name of Paul Villagrand, whom he had been in the habit 
of mesmerising in the usual way at Paris, where both re- 
sided. 

"In the course of the June ensuing," says Dr. Foissac, 
"Paul expressed the wish to pass some days in his native 
place, Magnac-Laval, Haute Vienne. I provided him 
with the means, and proposed to turn his journey to 
scientific account by attempting to entrance him at the 
distance of a hundred leagues. He was not to know 
my intention before the time came; but on the 2d of 
July, at half-past five p.m., his father was to give him a 
note from me, which ran thus — 'I am magnetising you 
at this moment; I will awake you when you have had a 
quarter of an hour's sleep.' M. Villagrand made the 
success of the experiment the more decisive by not hand- 
ing over my letter to his son, and so disregarding my in- 
structions. Nevertheless, at ten minutes before six, Paul 
being in the midst of his family, experienced a sensation 
of heat, and considerable uneasiness. His shirt was wet 
through with perspiration ; he wished to retire to his room ; 
but they detained him. In a few minutes he was entranced. 
In this state he astonished the persons present, by read- 
ing with his eyes shut several lines of a book taken at 
hazard from the library, and by telling the hour upon a 
watch they held to him. He awoke in a quarter of an 
hour." 

One naturally doubts whether the physical influence of 
the Od force can extend to this enormous distance ; whe- 
ther the agency ought not to be regarded as purely psy- 
chical; whether, in short, the will of the speaker may not 
have been the exclusive agent employed. 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 196 

I think that there is a disposition, among experimenters 
in mesmerism, to attribute too much to the agency of the 
will- There was with me in the autumn of 1849 a young 
lady, who was extremely susceptible of mesmerism. A 
gentleman who came with the family had been in the habit 
of entrancing her daily, and at last she was so sensitive 
that a wave of his hand would fix her motionless. His 
presence even in the room affected her ; and if he then 
tried to mesmerise her sister, she herself invariably became 
entranced. The operator was a person of remarkable 
mesmeric power. Then at my request, made unknown to 
her, he went to the end window of the room, and, looking 
out upon the Rhine, tried at the same time with the most 
forcible mental efforts to will her into sleep. The attempt 
failed entirely. Another day that he was in my room, 
about fifty feet from the room in which the young lady 
was sitting, he tried again by the will to entrance her. But 
it was all in vain. Therefore, if the will ever acts inde- 
pendently of Od influence, I am disposed to think that its 
action in producing trance must be infinitely feebler than 
the direct use of Od. 

However, some are convinced of the positive agency 
of the will in mesmerising. The following statement by 
Mr. H. S. Thompson of Fairfield, made in a letter to Dr. 
Elliotson, published in the Zoist, admits the inferiority 
in force of the will to the material agency of Od, at the 
same time that it goes far to prove its efficiency. 

"I have succeeded," says Mr. Thompson, "in arrest- 
ing spasms, and taking away every species of pain, and 
in producing intense heat and perspiration, by the will 
only ; and in many instances without the knowledge of 
the patients, who have been all unconscious of the power 
I have been exerting, until after the results have occurred. 



196 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

At the same time, I have generally found that the passes 
in combination with the will, or attention, most readily 
produce the effects w r e desire ; and that manipulations are 
much less fatiguing to the operator than the exertion of 
the will." 

Of an extremely sensitive patient, who was suffering 
with rheumatic pains, Mr. H. S. Thompson observes, " A 
few passes put her to sleep, though she was moaning as in 
great pain, and scarcely seemed to notice what I was 
doing. After sleeping for a few minutes, her face became 
composed, and she showed no symptoms of pain ; but as 
I could not get her to speak in her sleep, I awakened her. 
She looked very much surprised, and said that she felt 
very comfortable and free from pain. I told my friend 
that she was so sensitive that I thought that she might 
be put to sleep by the will in a few minutes. The bed- 
curtains were drawn, so that she could not see or know 
what was going on. I fixed my attention upon her, wish- 
ing her to go to sleep. When we looked at her two 
minutes afterwards, she was fast asleep. It was agreed 
that the following day, though I should be thirty miles off, 
the experiment should be tried again. A lady went at 
the time fixed on. I purposely postponed the time half- 
an-hour, thinking that the woman might have become ac- 
quainted with my intention, and go to sleep through the 
power of the imagination. The lady's account w T as, that 
she called upon the woman at the time agreed on, and at 
first thought that the experiment was going to fail, as she 
saw no symptoms of sleep ; but that in half-an-hour after- 
wards the patient went into a deep sleep, which lasted some 
time. After this she went to sleep every day for a fort- 
night at the same time, though I did not will her to sleep. 
She says that she felt in a dreamy and happy state for 
some days after." 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 197 

I might add many similar facts to the above interest- 
ing observations. The mass of evidence existing on the 
subject establishes beyond all doubt that patients have 
been thrown into trances by persons who have previously 
mesmerised them in the common way, at distances which 
seem to preclude the idea of any physical agent having 
been the medium of communication between the two 
parties. The operation seems to have been in those in- 
stances mental. Then how is such a result to be explained? 
— or by what expression can it be brought to tally with 
the principles I am endeavouring to substantiate ? I shape 
the answer thus : — 

The first step is ordinary mesmerising ; in other words, 
the operator directs an Od-current upon the patient, the 
Od in whose system is thereby disturbed; and initiatory 
trance ensues as the consequence. 

Secondly, The mind of the patient thus entranced en- 
ters into relation with, or is attracted towards, the mind 
or person of the mesmeriser. I remember witnessing a 
most decisive instance in which the operation of this at- 
traction was singularly manifested. The place was Dr. 
Elliotson's waiting-room ; the patient, a young man whom 
Mr. Simpson had entranced. Mr. Simpson then moved 
about the room, standing still at several points in it in 
succession. The young man seemed attracted towards Mr. 
Simpson, to whom he drew near each time he stopped ; 
then he pressed against Mr. Simpson, jostling him out of 
his place, which he planted himself in — his countenance 
bearing an expression of huge delight at what he had 
achieved. But in half a minute he began to look anxious 
and uneasy; and again — his eyes being shut all the while 
— he set off in search of Mr. Simpson, and repeated the 
same scene. There exists, it would appear, an attraction 



198 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

between the (mind of the ?) entranced person and (that 
of?) his mesmeriser, or (that of?) any other person with 
whom the entranced person has secondarily come into re- 
lation. 

Then, thirdly, It may be presumed that, in phenomena 
which are purely mental, space and distance go for no- 
thing. But if this supposition be admitted, it would be 
as easy for a mesmeriser to entrance by a mental effort 
a sensitive and habituated patient at a hundred miles off 
as at the end of the same room. The phenomenon thus 
viewed is wholly exoneural. The one mind is supposed 
to be actually sensitive to the influence of the other. Each 
of the two minds, though in different degrees, energizes, 
it may be imagined, beyond its bodily frame. And the 
mind of the patient feels the force of the mesmeriser's 
will acting upon it, and slips as it were at once, by the 
accustomed track, out of the normal into the abnormal 
psychico-neural relation. 

Still I cannot get rid of a lurking notion that, in the 
phenomena last considered, the Od-force contributes an 
element of physical or physico-dynamic influence. For, 
putting for the moment aside the idea of mental action, 
what is to prevent two living bodies, that may be in Od- 
relation, or in exact Od-unison, from physically influ- 
encing one another at indefinite distances ? 

IX. Trance-Diagnosis. — From Boppard, where I was 
residing in the winter of 1845-6, I sent to an American 
gentleman residing in Paris a lock of hair, which Col. 
C— , an invalid then under my care, had cut from his 
own head, and wrapped in writing-paper from his own 
writing-desk. Col. C— was unknown even by name to 
this American gentleman, who had no clue whatever 
whereby to identify the proprietor of the hair, And all 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 199 

that he had to do and did was to place the paper, en- 
closing the lock of hair, in the hands of a noted Parisian 
somnambulist. She stated, in the opinion she gave on 
the case, that Col. C — had partial palsy of the hips and 
legs, and that for another complaint he was in the habit 
of using a surgical instrument. The patient laughed 
heartily at the idea of the distant somnambulist having 
so completely realized him. 

The mesmeric discrimination of disease involves three 
degrees. 

First, the clairvoyante placed in relation with the 
patient, either by taking his hand, or by handling a lock 
of his hair, or any thing impregnated with his Od, feels 
all his feelings, realizes his sensations, and describes what 
he sensibly labours under. Her account of the case thus 
obtained will be more or less happy, according to the 
extent of her previous knowledge respecting ordinary dis- 
ease. 

Secondly, the clairvoyante, if in a higher state of lucid- 
ness, actually sees and inspects the interior bodily con- 
struction of the patient, whose inward organs are, as it 
would seem, lit with Od-light, for her examination. Or 
she sees them by their Od-light, being in mesmeric rela- 
tion with the internal frame of the patient. 

Thirdly, the clairvoyante, if still more lucid, foresees 
what will be the progress of the malady ; what further 
organic changes are threatened; what will be the patient's 
fate. 

The first two points require no further comment. I 
reserve my comments upon the last for another head. 

X. Mesmeric Treatment. — Let me first advert to the use 
of artificial trance as an anaesthetic agent in the service 
of surgery. There is no doubt that, when a patient can 



200 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

thus be deprived of ordinary sensibility, the resource is 
preferable to the employment of chloroform. Not only 
is it absolutely free from risk, but its direct effect is to 
soothe and tranquillize ; whereas chloroform is but a 
powerful narcotic, the effects of which are obtained 
through a brief stage of violent physical excitement. 
Then, at each dressing — at any moment, in short, when 
advisable — mesmerism may be again resorted to, which 
chloroform cannot. The honour of having been the first 
to employ mesmerism systematically, as an anaesthetic 
agent, belongs to James Esdale, M. D., Presidency Sur- 
geon at Calcutta. The reports of his success, in a vast 
body of cases, many of the most serious description, are 
given in the Zoist. 

A second point is the employment of artificial trance 
as a universal sedative ; as a means from which, in all 
cases purely nervous, the most admirable results may be 
expected and are realized; and from which, in disease in 
general, singular and beneficial effects have been obtained. 
This success was confidently to be anticipated, the instant 
that the real nature of mesmeric phenomena was appre- 
ciated. 

A third point is the employment of mesmeric passes, 
without the intention or power to produce trance, — 
simply as a local means of tranquillizing the nervous 
sensibility of a diseased part, and allaying the morbid 
phenomena which depend upon local nervous irritation. 

There is a fourth point under this head which will be 
regarded as more questionable, viz. the power attributed 
to clairvoyantes of prescribing treatment for themselves 
and others. Nevertheless, in their own cases, where 
the prescriptions have been limited to baths, and bleed- 
ing, and mesmerism itself, the boldness and precision of 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 201 

tlieir practice, and its success, have been such as to excite 
our wonder, and almost to command our confidence. It 
does not, however, seem that the treatment prescribed 
by clairvoyantes to others is equally certain ; and when 
they recommend drugs, it is clear that, adopting the 
fashion of the time and country in medicine, they are 
only prescribing by guess, like other doctors. But they 
sometimes guess very cleverly. 

XI. Phreno-Mesmerism. — How great is my regret that 
I can no longer take an active part in physiological in- 
quiry ! How great is my regret that, in former years, 
when I worked at the physiology of the nervous system, 
I undervalued phrenology ! Prejudiced against it by the 
writings of the late Dr. Gordon, by the authority of my 
early instructors, by the puerile mode in which craniology 
was generally advocated, by the superficial quality of 
the cerebral anatomy of Gall, I confined my attention to 
what I considered sounder objects of investigation. But 
now I have no doubt, not only that the metaphysical 
speculations of Gall were in the main just, but, likewise, 
that a great part of his craniological chart is accurately 
laid down. To connect phrenology with severe anatomi- 
cal research, to endeavour to determine the organic con- 
ditions which interfere with the application of the science 
to practical purposes, would be a task worthy the efforts 
of the best physiological labourer. Then, if phrenology 
be true, and the organology in the main correct, what is 
more likely than that directing an Od current upon the 
cerebral seat of a mental faculty should bring it into 
activity ? I have myself witnessed the repetition of this 
now common experiment, in a very unexceptionable in- 
stance ; and the success was perfect. The organs of ve- 
18 



202 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

Deration, of combativeness, of alimentiveness, were suc- 
cessively excited; and in each case a brilliant piece of 
acting followed. I must confess, however, that I could 
not divest myself of the impression that, whatever pains 
we took to conceal our plans, the clairvoyant young 
lady really knew beforehand what was expected of her, 
find performed accordingly. I speak in reference to the 
single instance which I have myself witnessed. I can- 
not, however, refuse to credit the testimony of good ob- 
servers — such as Dr. Elliotson — to facts which seem to 
establish the genuineness of phreno-mesmerism. In its 
double relation to phrenology and mesmerism, this in- 
quiry well merits attention. 

XII. Rapport Mesmeric Relation. Psychical At- 
traction. — Without presuming to place absolute confidence 
in the preceding speculations, but, on the contrary, apo- 
logizing for their hypothetical character, on the plea that 
any theory is better than none, let me now recapitula- 
tory put in array the facts and principles to which the 
terms at the head of this section refer : — 

1. I hold that the mind of a living person, in its most 
normal state, is always, to a certain extent, acting ex- 
oneurally, or beyond the limit of the bodily person; but, 
possibly, always in conjunction with some Od-operation. 

2. I suppose that there must be laws of neuro-psychi- 
cal attraction, or that there are definite circumstances 
which determine our exoneural apprehension to direct 
itself upon this or that object or person. 

So, in common perception, the exoneural apprehension 
probably moves back along the lines of material impres- 
sion, to reach the object perceived, which so attracts it. 

So, in sudden liking or aversion at first sight — or, 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 203 

more properly, on all occasions of meeting strangers — 
an exoneural mingling of reciprocal appreciation takes 
place ; different persons being differently gifted with in- 
tuitive discernment, as others or the same with powers 
of pleasingly affecting most they meet. 

So Zschokke's seer-gift would have been but the result 
of a greater exoneural mobility of his mind, whereby he 
was occasionally drawn to such mental affinity with a 
stranger, that he knew his whole life and circumstances. 

So in panic fears, in all cases where impressions seem 
heightened by the sympathy of many, the power of 
psychical attraction we may presume to be increased by 
its concentration on one subject, and the participation of 
all in one thought. The Rev. Hare Townshend, in his 
interesting work on mesmerism, declares that he has 
more than once succeeded in the following fact of sym- 
pathetic mental influence. All the members of a party 
then present have conspired against an expected visiter ; 
and when he came — carefully, at the same time, abstain- 
ing from alluding to some special subject agreed on — 
they have striven silently and mentally to drive it into 
his thoughts ; and in a short time he has spoken of it. 

3. For the most lucid persons in waking-trance (either 
of spontaneous occurrence, as in catelepsy, or when in- 
duced by mesmerism) the exoneural apprehension seems 
to extend to every object and person round, and to be 
drawn into complete intelligence of or with them. Such 
a patient is " en rapport," or in trance-mental relation 
with any or every thing around, in succession or simul- 
taneously. 

4. In persons slowly waking in the most measured 
course of things out of artificial initiatory trance into 
somnambulism, the mind is at first exoneurally attracted 



204 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

to the mesmeriser alone. As a next step, the mesmeriser, 
by putting himself in Od-relation with a third person, 
can make him participator in the same attraction. 

I do not here discuss Mr. Braid's views, which are 
more fully considered in a subsequent Letter. I have 
analyzed trance in its character of a spontaneous patho- 
logical phenomenon. I have examined its principal 
features as they present themselves when it is induced by 
mesmerism. But facts have been brought forward by 
Mr. Braid, which seem to establish that, in some highly 
susceptible persons, trance may be brought on at will in 
another way, by their own indirect efforts, apart from 
external influences : — as, for instance, by straining the 
eyes upwards, the attention being kept some time con- 
centrated on the object or the effort. Certainly, doing 
this makes the head feel uncomfortable and giddy, and 
seems as if it would lead to some kind of fit if indefinitely 
prolonged. 

XIII. Trance-Prevision. — Instances of trance-pre- 
vision are referrible to three different heads. 

1. The simplest trance-prevision is that of epileptic 
patients (artificially entranced) who name, at the distance 
of weeks beforehand, the exact hour, nay, minute, at 
which the next fit will occur. The case of Cazot, (men- 
tioned by Dr. Foissac,) who was in the habit of predict- 
ing the accession of his fits with unerring precision, ter- 
minated, however, in the following manner: Cazot had 
predicted, as usual, when he should be next attacked : 
before the time came round, however, he was thrown 
from a horse and killed. But no doubt can be enter- 
tained that, had he not met with this accident, the next 
fit would have occurred at the hour predicted. This is 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 205 

the simplest and narrowest form of prevision : the clair- 
voyante can tell, in reference to himself, or to any one 
with whom he is placed in relation, what will be the 
course of his health. He can see forward what the pro- 
gress of his living economy will be, other things continu- 
ing the same. 

2. The next feat is greater. Dr. Teste, in his most 
interesting Manuel de MagnHisme Animal, gives the 
case of a lady, his patient, who, when entranced, foretold 
the day and hour when an accident, the nature of which 
she could not foresee, was to befall her, and from it a 
long series of illness was to take its rise. Dr. Teste and 
the lady's husband were staying with her when the fatal 
moment approached. Then she rose, and, making an 
excuse, left the room, followed by her husband ; when, 
on opening a door, a great gray rat rushed out, and she 
sank down in a fit of terror, and the predicted illness 
ensued. In this most decisive case, the prevision ex- 
tended to an extraneous and accidental circumstance, to 
which no calculation or intuition of her natural bodily 
changes could have led her. 

3. But there are instances which reach yet farther. 
Dr. Foissac narrates the case of a Mdlle. Coeline, who, 
when entranced, predicted that she would be poisoned on 
a certain evening, at a given hour. What would be the 
vehicle of the poison she could not foresee, either at the 
time when she first uttered the prediction, or on an oc- 
casion or two afterwards, when, being again entranced, 
she recurred to the subject. However, shortly before 
the day she was to be poisoned, being questioned in 
trance as to the possibility of averting her fate, she said, 
" Throw me into the sleep a little before the time I have 
named, and then ask me wb other I can discern Avhere the 

18* 



206 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

danger lies." This was done, and Mdlle. Coeline at once 
said that the poison was in a glass at her bed-side — they 
had substituted for quinine an excessive dose of mor- 
phine. 

Thus it appears that persons in waking trance can, 
first, calculate what is naturally to follow in their own 
health, or in that of persons with whom they are in mes- 
meric relation; can, secondly, foretell the occurrence of 
fortuitous external events, without seeing how to prevent 
them; can, thirdly, when endowed with more lucidity, 
discern enough to enable them occasionally to counteract 
the natural course of external events. Fate thus be- 
comes a contingency of certainties. There is a true series 
of consequences to be deduced from whatever partial 
premises the clairvoyante may happen to be acquainted 
with. When she has more data, she makes a wider cal- 
culation, certain as far as it goes. But other premises,, 
influencing the ultimate result, may still have escaped 
her. So the utmost reach of genuine trance-prevision is 
but the announcement of a probability, which unforeseen 
events may counteract. 

I will conclude this head by introducing M. Alexis's 
account of his own powers of mesmeric prevision, in which 
the reader will see that his experience has led him to 
view his conclusions as calculations upon certain positive 
elements ; yet he admits the possibility of powers greater 
than his own: "On peut prevoir Favenir," said M. 
Alexis; "mais lorsque cet avenir a des fondations posi- 
tives. Mais annoncer un fait isole, un accident, une ca. 
tastrophe, non. Cependant quelquefois cela est arriv6 aux 
individus, mais c'6taient des instruments de la Divinite : 
ces hommes sont rares. Etant a une maison de jeu, je 
sgrairais d'avance la couleur gagnante, surtout aux cartes. 



SUPPLEMENTAL. 207 

Mais a la roulette cela me semble tres difficile. Cela est 
de l'avenir. Les cartes, au contraire, sont dans les mains 
d'un homme quelques minutes. Cepenclant si Ton voulait 
appliquer la clairvoyance a une exploitation semblable, je 
suis materiellement et moralement certain que la vue ferait 
faute." 

XIV. Ultra-terrestrial Vision. — If a clairvoyante can 
discern what is passing at the distance of one hundred 
leagues, why should not his perception extend to material 
objects beyond our sphere? 

Mr. "Williamson tried to conduct one of his clairvoyantes 
mentally to the moon ; but, having got some way, she 
declared the moon was so intolerably bright, that the ef- 
fort pained and distressed her, and accordingly Mr. Wil- 
liamson relinquished the experiment, and happened not 
to renew it. 

M. Alexis, when entranced, in answer to my inquiries, 
declared himself cognizant of the condition of the planets. 
He said that they were inhabited, with the exception of 
those which are either too near to, or too remote from 
the sun. He said that the inhabitants of the different 
planets are very diverse ; that the earth is the best off, 
for that man has double the intelligence of the ruling 
animals in the other planets. It would be the height of 
credulity to regard this communication as more than a 
clever guess ; yet a plausible guess it is, for if the other 
planets are composed of the same material elements with 
the earth, it is evident that the temperature of our planet 
must render these same materials more generally available 
for life and economic purposes on it than they would be 
in Mercury or Saturn. 



208 SUPPLEMENTAL. 

XV. Ultra-vital Vision. — The following is M. Alexis's 
trance-revelation as to the state of the soul after death. 
I presume it is no more than an ingenious play of his 
fancy; but a young clergyman of some acumen, to whom 
I communicated it, was half disposed to give it more 
credit, and observed, with logical precision, that, viewing 
the statement as an intuition, it would show the necessity 
of the resurrection of the body. 

"L'ame ne change jamais. Apres la mort elle retourne 
a la Divinite. Dieu a voulu attacher Tame au corps, qui 
est un prison ou Dieu a voulu enfermer Tame pendant 
qu'elle est sur la terre. L'ame ne perd jamais son indi- 
viduality. Apres la mort, nos souvenirs ne nous restent 
pas." 

The last sentence is that to which my friend's remark 
principally referred. 

XVI. Nature of the Supreme Being. — The following 
striking expressions were made use of by M. Alexis, when 
entranced, in answer to a string of questions which I had 
sent to him on this subject. He declared, at the same 
time, that he had never before been led to consider it in 
his mesmeric state. I presume, therefore, that in his or- 
dinary waking state he is a Spinozist, and that, in place 
of an intuition, he simply delivered an oracular announce- 
ment of his preconceived notions: — 

"II n'y a pas de parole humaine qui peut donner une 
idee de la Divinite. Dieu c'est tout. II n'a pas de per- 
sonality. Dieu est partout et nulle part. Dieu est le 
foyer qui allume la nature. Dieu est un foyer universel, 
dont les hommes ne sont que la vapeur la plus eloignee, 
la plus faible. Chaque homme est l'extremite d'un rayon 
de Lui-meme. II n'existe que Dieu." 



TEE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING-RING. 209 



LETTER XII. 

The Odometer or Divining-Ring. — How come upon by the author 
— His first experiments — The phenomena an objective proof of 
the reality of the Od-force. 

" Qualis ab incepto " shall be the motto of this twelfth 
letter, the materials of which were undreamt of by me, 
when some three months ago I remitted the new and cor- 
rected edition of "the Letters" to England. The occa- 
sion which led me to the knowledge of the facts I have 
to mention, and their bearing, tally curiously with what 
has gone before. 

For it is again winter, with its long, solitary evenings, 
against the tedium of which I had to seek a resource ; 
and I bethought me, this time, of occupying myself with 
looking into the higher mathematics. Accordingly I sent 
to Herr Caspari, professor of mathematics in the gym- 
nasium at Boppard, to solicit him to give me the instruc- 
tion and assistance which I needed. And he obligingly 
came, in the evening of the 31st of December, to sit by 
my side and converse with me. And \ went over pre- 
liminarily my schoolboy recollections of the elements of 
mathematics, and was pleased at finding the remembered 
difficulties vanish before the explanations of my well-in- 
formed tutor. And I learned, to my vast delight, that 
the inability under which asymptotes labour to touch hy- 
perbolas is a purely arbitrary one, like the legislative 
prohibition not to marry with one's deceased wife's sister; 
but that, unlike the latter, it can be evaded; inasmuch as 
an asymptote, by changing its name and forfeiting its 



210 THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING-RING. 

properties, may at any time unite itself with the object 
to which it had before been infinitely near. Again, I 
found my boyish distrust and disbelief in sines and cosines 
replaced by an intelligent and well-satisfied acquaintance 
with them. And I even obtained a glimpse of the higher 
analysis itself, pointing with its unerring finger to the 
exact height, else unmeasurable, at which my candle 
should stand in the centre of my round table, to shed 
upon it its maximum of illumination. 

A liberal hour being over, and my dolphin-like recrea- 
tion ended, my new friend entered into desultory chat, 
and asked me, among other things, if I had not written 
something on the divining-rod. I replied to his question 
by giving him the copy I had of "the Letters ;" and pro- 
mised, as a New- Year's gift for the morrow, to present 
him with the implement itself. And I lent him Von Rei- 
chenbach's book on Od, with which he was unacquainted. 
Then he told me that there were two or three experi- 
ments, possibly akin to trials with the divining-rod, with 
which he had been familiar for years, and which he had 
shown to many without receiving an explanation of them. 
He said that as far as he knew they were original and 
his own; and that he would willingly show them to me. 
He wanted only for that purpose a piece of silver, a gold 
ring, and a bit of silk. These were easily found. And 
he attached the silk to the ring, which he then held sus- 
pended by the silk over a silver spoon, at a distance of 
half an inch. 

Shortly the ring shaped its first vague movements into 
regular oscillations in a direction to and fro, or towards 
and from, Herr Caspari. I will call such oscillations 
longitudinal. It was evident to me, that this phenome- 
non must be akin to the motion of the divining-rod. 



THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING RING. 211 

Then, at Herr Caspari's suggestion, I summoned the 
maid, who was directed to place her hand in Herr Cas- 
pari's disengaged hand. On her doing so, the oscillations 
of the ring became transverse. How pregnant was this 
fact ! An Od-current had been established between the 
two experimenters ; and the apparent influence of the two 
metals on each other had been modified. 

Herr Caspari told me that, as far as he knew, these 
experiments would only succeed when made with silver 
and gold, and a bit of silk. But he said that he had still 
another experiment to show me, which he did the follow- 
ing day. He said he had a little pea-like bit of some- 
thing, which he had been told was schwefel-Jcies, that ex- 
hibited another motion : when held suspended by silk over 
either of the fingers, it rotated one way; when held 
suspended over the thumb, it rotated in the contrary di- 
rection. 

Herr Caspari left me, after agreeing to assist me in 
the further examination of these phenomena; and the 
New Year coming in found me in busy thought how to 
elicit, through variations of Herr Caspari's experiments, 
some important physical evidence as to the reality and 
agency of Von Reichenbach's Od-force. 

In ten days we have succeeded in disentangling the 
confused results which attended our first experiments; 
and as I see no likelihood of extending them at present 
in any new direction, I present them to the reader now, 
as complete as I can at present render them. I have 
used the term "divining-ring," partly because I have a 
vague idea of having seen Herr Caspari's first facts ad- 
verted to in some publication under that name; partly 
because it is really thus far deserved: — If you place a 
piece of silver on a table, and lay over the table and it 



212 

an unfolded silk pocket-handkerchief, you can discover 
where the silver lies by trying with the suspended ring 
each part of the surface. The ring will only oscillate 
when held over the silver. But now I have to substitute 
another name for the sake of precision. 

A fragment of any thing, of any shape, suspended 
either by silk or cotton thread, the other end of which is 
wound round the first joint either of the fore-finger or of 
the thumb, I will call an Odometer. The length of the 
thread does not matter. It must be sufficient to allow 
the ring, or whatever it is, to reach to about half an inch 
from the table, against which you rest your arm or elbow 
to steady your hand. If there be nothing on the table, 
the ring or its equivalent soon becomes stationary. Then 
you test the powers of the odometer by placing upon the 
table under it what substances you please. These I would 
call Od-subjeets. 

To obtain uniform results with the Odometer, it is im- 
portant to attach the sustaining thread always to the 
same finger of the same hand, — best to the fore-finger of 
the right hand. It is evident that this rule is not to 
prevent the experimenter, when he has succeeded in thus 
obtaining a series of consistent results, from trying what 
will come of substituting his other digits for that first 
employed. 

I have armed the odometer with gold, silver, lead, zinc, 
iron, copper ; with coal, bone, horn, dry wood, charcoal, 
cinder, glass, soap, wax, sealing-wax, shell-lac, sulphur, 
earthenware. As Od-subjects I have likewise tried most 
of the substances above enumerated. All do not go 
equally well, or perform exactly the same feats, with each 
odometer. For example, an odometer of dry wood re- 
mains stationary over gold; while it oscillates with great 



THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING- RING. 218 

vivacity over glass. The respective habitudes of different 
odometers to different Od-subjects is one of the simplest 
points of investigation which the facts I am narrating 
suggest. 

A gold ring with a plain stone in it was the first odo- 
meter which I employed, and it is one of the most largely 
available. And gold forms in general the most success- 
ful Od-subject. Sulphur likewise displays very lively 
motions in the odometer. But the material which I 
finally employed to verify the following phenomena was 
shell-lac, a portion a full inch long, broader towards the 
lower end, then cut to be lancet-shaped. The odometer 
moves more sluggishly with some than with others, and 
in the same hand on different days; and doubtless is ca- 
pable of manifesting a greater variety of effects than I 
have yet elicited from it. I can only pledge myself to 
the certainty of my being always now able to obtain with 
the shell-lac odometer all the results mentioned in the 
XXVII. experiments which first follow. Over rock-crys- 
tal, however, the shell-lac odometer acts very feebly; but 
a glass odometer moves with brilliant vivacity. I would 
besides advise the reader to try a gold-ring odometer, in 
preference, for experiments X., XI., XII., XIII. 

Then here are the results : — 

I. Odometer (we will suppose armed with shell-lac) 
held over three sovereigns heaped loosely together to form 
the Od-subject; the odometer suspended from the right 
forefinger of a competent person of the male sex. Result 
— Longitudinal oscillations. 

II. Let the experimenter, continuing experiment L, 
take with his unengaged hand the hand of a person of the 
opposite sex. Result — Transverse oscillations of the odo- 
meter. 

19 



214 THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING-RING. 

III. Then, the experiment being continued, let a per- 
son of the sex of the experimenter take and hold the un- 
engaged hand of the second party. Result — Longitudinal 
oscillations of the odometer. 

IV. Repeat experiment I., and, the longitudinal oscil- 
lations being established, touch the forefinger which is 
engaged in the odometer with the fore-finger of your other 
hand. Result — The oscillations become transverse. 

V. Repeat experiment I., and, the longitudinal oscil- 
lations being established, bring the thumb of the same 
hand into contact with the finger implicated in the odo- 
meter. Result — The oscillations become transverse. 

VI. Then, continuing experiment V., let a person of 
the same sex take and hold your unengaged hand. Result 
— The oscillations become again longitudinal. 

VII. Experiment I. being repeated, take and hold in 
your disengaged hand two or three sovereigns. Result — 
The oscillations become transverse. 

VIII. Continuing experiment VII., let a person of 
the same sex take and hold your hand which holds the 
sovereigns. Result — The oscillations become longitu- 
dinal. 

IX. If the odometer be attached to the thumb instead 
of to the forefinger, it oscillates longitudinally; but on ap- 
proaching the thumb so as to touch the forefinger, the os- 
cillations become of course transverse. 

X. Repeat experiment I., but let the Od-subject be a 
double row of five sovereigns, each disposed longitudinally 
from you, and hold the odometer over the middle of the 
double row of sovereigns. Result — Longitudinal oscilla- 
tions, but the excursions are inordinately long. Still, on 
touching the forefinger with the thumb, the oscillations 
become either transverse, or the odometer moves in an 



THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING-RING. Zl5 

ellipse, of which the long axis corresponds with the axis 
of the double line of sovereigns. 

XI. Dispose ten sovereigns longitudinally from you 
in two parallel rows, an inch and a half apart, and hold 
the odometer over the middle of the interval. Result — 
Longitudinal oscillations. 

XII. Modify experiment XI. by holding the odometer 
not midway, but nearer one of the rows of sovereigns. 
Result — Oblique oscillations. 

XIII. Dispose ten sovereigns heaped in a short longi- 
tudinal group, and hold the odometer over the table half 
an inch to one side of the middle of the heap. Result — 
Transverse oscillations. 

From the latter experiments and their modifications, it 
became evident that the magnitude and shape of the Od- 
subject have each a direct influence on the result. A 
greater force of attraction evidently exists towards the 
greater mass. 

XIV. Odometer held over the northward pole of a 
magnetic needle contained in a compass-box under glass. 
Result — Rotatory motion in the direction of the hands of 
a watch. 

XV. Odometer held over the southward pole. Result 
— Rotatory motion in the direction contrary to the mo- 
tion of the hands of a watch. 

XVI. Repeat experiments XIV. and XV., with the 
difference of touching the forefinger implicated in the 
odometer with the thumb of the same hand. Results — 
The rotatory motions observed in the two experiments 
referred to become exactly reversed. 

XVII. Hold the odometer over the centre of the needle. 
Result — Oscillations at right angles, or transverse, to the 
axis of the needle. 

XVIII. Hold the odometer over, and half an inch to 



216 THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING- RING. 

one side of, the centre of the needle. Result — Oscilla- 
tions parallel to the axis of the needle. 

XIX. Repeat experiment XIV. Then, during its 
continuance, place a pile of three sovereigns on the com- 
pass-box, in front of the northward pole of the needle, 
and about an inch from it. Result — Direction of original 
rotatory motion reversed. 

Then follow experiments with results exactly parallel to 
the preceding, having the greatest physiological interest. 

XX. Hold the odometer over the tip of the forefinger 
of your disengaged hand. Result — Rotatory motion in 
the direction of the hands of a watch. 

XXI. Hold the odometer over the thumb of your dis- 
engaged hand. Result — Rotatory motion- against that of 
the hands of a watch. 

XXII. Hold up the forefinger and thumb of the disen- 
gaged hand, their points being at two and a half inches 
apart. Hold the odometer in the centre of a line which 
would join the points of the finger and thumb. Result — 
Oscillations transverse to the line indicated. 

XXIII. Modify the preceding experiment by holding 
the odometer half an inch to one side of, and over, the 
middle of the line indicated. Result — Oscillations parallel 
to the said line. 

XXIV. Modify experiment XXIII. by approximating 
the ends of the forefinger and thumb of the disengaged 
hand, so that they touch. Result — The odometer no 
longer moves. 

XXV. Forefinger and thumb of the disengaged hand 
held upwards and apart, sustaining a short file longwise 
between them. Odometer then held over the last joint 
of the finger. Result — Odometer stationary. Odometer 
then held over the last joint of the thumb. Result — 
Odometer stationary. 



THE ODOMETER, OR DIVINING-RING. 217 

XXVI. Odometer held over the northward pole of tlio 
magnetic needle, and its consequent rotatory motion in 
the direction of that of the hands of a watch established. 
Then advance the finger or the thumb of the other hand 
towards the odometer. (The odometer should be held in 
these experiments half an inch above, and a little wide 
of, or before, the apex of the needle.) The finger, or the 
thumb, is then to be brought as near to the odometer a3 
is consistent with not touching it in its rotation. Result 
— Direction of the rotation reversed. Then join the 
finger and thumb, and hold the two thus brought into 
contact in the same proximity to the odometer. Result 
— The rotation returns to the former direction ; that is, 
to the direction of the motion of the hands of a watch. 

XXVII. Odometer held over the radial (or thumb) 
edge of the wrist. Result — The same as when held over 
thumb. Odometer held over the little-finger edge of the 
wrist. Result — The same as when held over either of 
the fingers. This difference in result extends a third the 
length of the fore-arm, over the middle of which the odo- 
meter becomes stationary. 

XXVIII. A portion of rock-crystal five inches long, 
about two wide and deep, placed on the table with its long 
axis transverse to the operator. Glass odometer held 
over the middle of the upper plain surface. Result — 
Oscillations parallel to the axis of the crystal. Position 
of the crystal shifted, so as to make its axis point from 
the operator. Result — Oscillations as before parallel to 
the axis of the crystal, but longitudinal to the operator. 
Then the thumb applied to the forefinger. Result — 
Transverse oscillations. 

XXIX. Glass odometer held suspended over one apex 
of the crystal. Result — Rotatory motion in the direction 

19* 



218 THE ODOMETER, OR DIVIXING-RING. 

of the hands of a watch. Odometer held over the oppo- 
site end. Result — Rotation in the direction contrary to 
that of the hands of a watch. 

XXX. The last experiment repeated. The forefinger 
of the operator's unengaged hand brought near to the 
odometer in each of its two varieties. Result — The pre- 
vious rotatory motion reversed. Then the point of the 
thumb brought into contact with the odometer finger. 
Result — The original rotatory motion re-established. 

I will add in reference to the first and simplest expe- 
riments, that the interposition of several folds of silk be- 
tween the Od-subject and the odometer renders the mo- 
tions of the latter less brisk. 

The development which I have thus given to the few, 
isolated, and long-hoarded experiments of Herr Caspari, 
was not so simple an affair as it may seem to be. For 
several days I was in doubt as to the genuineness of the 
results, so capricious and contradictory were they. It 
was only when I had discovered, first, the reversing ef- 
fect of touching the odometer finger with the thumb of 
the same hand, and, secondly, that approaching the thumb 
towards the odometer finger, or even allowing the other 
fingers of the odometer hand to close upon the ball of 
the thumb, has the same effect with bringing the point 
of the thumb into contact with the odometer finger, that 
I succeeded in obtaining unvarying results. The interest 
of these experiments is unquestionably very considerable. 
They open a new vein of research, and establish a new 
bond of connexion between physical and physiological 
science, which cannot fail to promote the advancement of 
both. They contribute a mass of objective and physical 
evidence to give support and substantiality to the subjec- 
tive results of Von Reiehenbach's experiments. They 
tend to prove the existence of some universal force, such 



THE SOLUTION. 219 

as that to which he has given theoretical form and consis- 
tence under the designation of Od. And such a univer- 
sal force, what other can we deem it to be than the long- 
vilipended influence of Mesmer, rendered bright and 
transparent and palatable by passing through the filter 
of science ? 



LETTER XIIL 

The Solution. — Examination of the genuineness of the phenomena 
— Od-motions produced by bodies in their most inert state — Ana- 
lysis of the forces which originate them — Od-motions connected 
with electrical, magnetic, chemical, crystalline, and vital influences 
— Their analysis. 

The present letter might be entitled "An account of 
some motions recently discovered, to the manifestation of 
which an influence proceeding from the living human body 
is necessary." The contrivance by which these motions 
are elicited I have called an Odometer, from the convic- 
tion that the force which sets it in movement is no other 
than the Od-force of Von Reichenbach. For the same 
reason I have called the objects with which it is tested Od- 
subjects, and the motions themselves Od-motions. 

The odometer is a pendulum, formed of a ring, or other 
small body attached to a thread, the other end of which 
is wound round a finger or the thumb. The odometer em- 
ployed in the following experiments was a light gold ring, 
having a greater mass of metal on the unattached side, 
and suspended to the last joint of the right fore-finger, 
the suspending medium being either silk, or fine cotton, 
or the hair of a horse. The experiments were made 1 y 
myself. In order to avoid the confusion resulting from 



220 THE SOLUTION. 

a multiplicity of details, I shall state the results obtained 
through testing a limited number only of Od-subjects, so 
selected as to represent the leading divisions of the pro- 
vinces of nature, and of dynamics. With some of the 
principal the reader will be already acquainted through 
Letter XII., the contents of which will have prepared 
him for, and probably suggested to him, the following 
question, as a desirable subject of preliminary considera- 
tion. 

I. Are the motions referred to worth examining at all ? 
Are they more than the simple results of impulses con- 
veyed to the pendulum by movements of the hand or 
wrist, or some general sway of the experimenter's per- 
son, unintentionally going with the expectation or con- 
ception of this or that motion of the ring? Such a so- 
lution of the phenomena is not wanting in probability. 
It is metaphysically and physically certain, that when we 
maintain one and the same bodily posture or gesture, as 
in standing, sitting, or holding out the hand, whatever 
be the seeming continuousness and unity of the effort, 
the posture or gesture is really maintained only by a 
series of rapidly succeeding efforts. What is more likely 
than that, in such a continual renewing of voluntary ac- 
tions, our fancy, or the sympathy between our will and 
our thoughts, should give a bias to the results, even 
when we most try to neutralize its influence? The 
fact which I propose first to mention is in complete agree- 
ment with this view. I can at will cause the odometer 
to move exactly as I please. Although I hold my hand 
as steadily as possible by leaning the arm against a table, 
and endeavour to keep my person absolutely still, yet I 
have only to form a vivid conception of a new path for 
the odometer, and a motion in the so-imagined direction 
is almost immediately substituted for that which was be- 



THE SOLUTION. 221 

fore going on. In like manner, I have only to conceive 
the cessation of motion, and the odometer gradually 
stops. I must farther admit that my first trials of the 
odometer were made under the full expectation that the 
results which ensued would follow. And I cannot say 
that it is impossible, that when other and new motions 
emerged, they were not often either realizations of a pre- 
vious guess, or repetitions on the same principle of what 
occurred at first as an accident. 

On the other hand, I am not unprepared with an array 
of facts which seem to me capable not only of neutral- 
izing the force of the preceding argument, but of making 
it appear, most likely, that some other influence than 
that of the experimenter's mind is often in operation in 
bringing about these results; an influence sufficiently 
curious, as I think, to justify me in continuing this in- 
vestigation and the present letter. I beg the reader's 
candid construction of the following statements. 

If, when trying the odometer, I have caused it, by con- 
ceiving a different motion, to change its path and move 
in a wrong direction, I now endeavour to divert my 
mind from considering its motion at all, the odometer 
invariably resumes its previous right movement. It is, 
indeed, difficult to observe a strict mental neutrality in 
this instance. For the odometer moves imperfectly and 
uncertainly, unless I frequently look at its performance. 
Or, as I interpret the fact, unless I keep my attention 
fixed to a certain extent on what I am doing, my hand 
loses its steadiness, and communicates all sorts of dis- 
tracting impulses to the pendulum. And the uncertainty 
hence arising admits, it appears to me, of being obviated 
by the comparison of numerous careful repetitions of the 
experiments. 

Many of the motions which I at first thought were 



222 THE SOLUTION. 

genuine Od-results, I afterwards found out I had been 
mistaken in. And the correction of these errors was 
mostly due to frequent and careful repetitions of the 
experiments, unattended by an expectation of finding the 
results reversed or otherwise modified, and instituted 
simply to secure their genuineness and certainty. 

Then there was one result which at one time I confi- 
dently anticipated; but it never came up. I had found 
the ring make gyrations in the direction of those of the 
hands of a watch, when held over the small end of a 
living unincubated egg. Opposite gyrations were ob- 
tained over the big end. I thought this might have to 
do with the sex of the embryo. And I tried, accordingly, 
a dozen eggs, expecting that in some the direction of the 
gyrations at the two ends would be reversed. But this 
event never occurred, much as I laid myself out for it. 
If my fancy could have decided the matter in spite of my 
care to prevent its interference, I am clear that for a 
time, at least, I should have obtained in these experi- 
ments upon the egg a double set of results. I was much 
delighted two months later at coming upon the explana- 
tion of the question, why gyration like that of the hands 
of a watch is manifested at the little end of the egg. I 
had known from nearly the first that this direction of the 
rotatory Od-motion is manifested when the pendulum is 
swung over the right side of the human body. Then I 
fell upon an old physiological reminiscence, (and found 
a drawing of the fact in my outlines of Physiology,) that 
the embryo chick lies in the egg transversely upon its 
face, with its right side towards the little end. 

Then there were two other results, which were di- 
rectly at variance with my anticipations, but which never 
failed to present themselves. I made a voltaic arrange- 
ment by means of two plates, one of zinc, the other of 



THE SOLUTION. 223 

copper, fixed in contact in a solution of salt in water. 
Now, when held opposite the middle of the zinc disc, the 
odometer always rotated like the hands of a watch; while 
over the copper disc the phenomenon was reversed. 
These results are constant. But I have had the satisfac- 
tion of lately discovering that, if I present the ring to 
any part of the circumference of the two discs, its motion 
is the opposite, and in accordance with theory. 

One of the tests on which I have much relied in deter- 
mining whether the motions I obtained were genuine Od- 
motions, consisted in producing their reversal by altering 
the Od-relations of my hand or of my person. What 
gives particular value to this test is, that the versed or 
complimentary motion is subject to different laws. One 
set of secondary oscillations changes into oscillations in 
a plane at right angles to the plane of the primary oscil- 
lations. In another series the motion continues in the 
same plane ; but the excursions, which were before longest 
in one direction, are now longest in the opposite, as if a 
repellent current had been substituted for an attracting 
one. The Od-oscillations, it may be observed, are always 
dependent upon the action of a constant rectilinear force 
counteracted by the gravitation of the pendulum. The 
means I usually employ to reverse the primary od- 
motions is, bringing the end of the right thumb into 
contact with the odometer-finger, where the thread is 
wound round it. But the experimenter cannot be too 
careful not to bring the thumb even near to the odometer 
finger, or to allow his other fingers to close upon the ball 
of the thumb, for the phenomena are thus again liable to 
be reversed. 

The other means of reversing the results of the expe- 
riments are: — 



224 THE SOLUTION. 

a. To substitute a hair of a mare for the suspending media 

above-named. 

b. To hold a sovereign in the left hand. 

c. To apply the fore-finger of the left hand to the odometer 

finger. 

d. To have either hand of a person of the same sex laid on your 

right hand or right ear. 

e. To have either hand of a person of the opposite sex laid upon 

your left hand or left ear. 

The various substances employed as Od-subjeets admit 
of being divided into two great classes ; one consisting 
of unorganized or organized bodies in which a minimum 
of internal activity is present ; the other, of bodies of 
both classes, in which the more energetic properties of 
matter are at work. 

' I. Let me first notice the results obtained with the 
first class of bodies. These, again, are reducible to two 
forms. The Od-subject may either be of a regular figure 
and equal thickness throughout — as a piece of money, 
for instance; or it may be of an irregular figure, with 
an unequal mass of matter at one part — as, for instance, 
when it consists of an aggregate of several pieces of 
money variously arranged. I shall first treat of the 
first and simpler case. 

It does not matter how you face in making these ex- 
periments. The influence of your person makes the va- 
rious meridians of the Od-subject. The movements which 
we have first to examine are the results of holding the 
odometer over the middle of various uniform discs, such 
as I have supposed. They consist of two series of os- 
cillations — one directed longitudinally to and from the 
experimenter; the other transversal, or in a plane at 



THE SOLUTION. 225 

right angles to the plane of the first series of oscillations. 
Then it is highly convenient to have terms denoting the 
four cardinal points at which these oscillations cut the 
edge of the circular disc. These points may be termed 
distal, proximal, dextral, sinistral. It will likewise be 
found convenient to have terms to denote the direction 
of the motions manifested. The terms distad, proximad, 
dextrad, sinistrad, will serve our purpose. These terms 
refer to the person of the experimenter. Two other terms 
are still wanting ; sometimes rotatory motion supervenes, 
which maybe either in the direction of the motion of the 
hands of a watch, or the reverse. I call the first of these 
two motions clock-rotation, the second versed-rotation. 

The present class of Od-subjects present the following 
remarkable differences among themselves : — 

Over one class, including gold, zinc, and polished 
glass, a circular mass of bi-carbonate of soda, the odo- 
meter primarily oscillates longitudinally. 

With the other class, which includes pearl, ground glass, 
copper, a circular mass of tartaric acid, the odometer 
held over the centre primarily oscillates transversely. 

Over polished glass, an odometer of resin oscillates 
transversely; over ground glass longitudinally. 

Each of these movements is replaced by the other, 
when the thumb is brought into contact with the odo- 
meter-finger. (See figs. 1 and 2, in which the continu- 
ous line represents the primary motion ; the dotted line, 
the secondary or complementary or reversed motion.) 

II. Analysis of the forces, or currents conducing to, 
or implicated in the movements of the odometer just de- 
scribed. 

It has been said that the above movements manifest 
20 



226 



THE SOLUTION. 



themselves when the odometer is held over the centre of 
the Od-subject. Let us now examine the consequences 
of holding the odometer extra-marginally to, or beyond 
the edge of, the Od-subject. 



Zinc 



Copper 





t 



o 



i 







Zinc 




THE SOLUTION. 227 

Copper 





o 



_» 



rf 




tA. 



a. Let the odometer be held a quarter of an inch away from ; and 
over each cardinal point of a sovereign, or zinc circular disc, 
in succession. Result — Held near the distal point, its motion 
is proximad. Held near the proximal point, its motion is 
proximad. Held near the dextral point, its motion is sinistrad. 
Held near the sinistral point, its motion is sinistrad, (See 
fig. 3.) 

But the first two impulses thus attained correspond 
with the direction of the primary oscillations of the odo- 
meter, the last two with its complementary oscillations ; 



228 THE SOLUTION. 

and if the odometer be held now over different points in 
succession of the two diametral lines, suspended, of course, 
by the finger alone over the first series of points, and by 
the finger touched by the thumb over the second, it will 
be found that the primary oscillations originated over 
every point of the longitudinal diameter of the zinc disc 
are proximad ; and that those obtainable over any part 
of the transverse diameter of the zinc disc are sinistrad. 

Then the forces or currents are made manifest by 
which the two sets of oscillations are produced ; and the 
marvel of the prompt substitution of one for the other is 
at an end; for it is evident that these two forces, whether 
produced or only revealed by the presence of the odome- 
ter, co-exist; and that the changed Od-relations of the 
experimenter to the odometer, (effected by disjoining the 
thumb from, or joining it to, the forefinger,) simply act 
by giving temporary predominance to one of the two 
co-existent currents. 

If these experiments be made at the edge of the copper 
disc, they elicit opposite but parallel results. (See fig. 4.) 
They evince the existence of two currents, one dextrad, 
the other sinistrad, from which the same conclusions may 
be deduced. 

It is important to notice, that in all this class of the 
experiments, the distad and dextrad currents are mani- 
fested in combination : and in like manner the proximad 
and sinistrad. 

This combination is farther exemplified in the next 
experiment, which I shall describe. 

b. Excite the above extra-marginal motions of the odometer held 
near the two plates in succession ; and then apply the thumb 
to the finger in each experiment. Result — Tangential motions 
are manifested parallel to the diametral motions before dis- 
played. (See figs. 5 and 6.) 



THE SOLUTION. 229 

We cannot, however, suppose these extra-marginal 
tangential motions to be the lateral limits of the four 
great currents, inasmuch as they are obtained by the 
versed process to that which obtains the central motion ; 
and the question arises, what then are the limits of the 
central currents ? 

c. Hold the odometer over the zinc disc at its centre ; of course, 
longitudinal oscillations determined by the proximad current 
manifest themselves. Then shift its place on the transverse 
diameter more and more to the left. First Result — For some- 
thing more than a quarter of the whole diameter, the motion 
continues longitudinal, proving that the central current has 
a breadth at least something exceeding half the diameter. 
Same result on the other side of the centre. Second Result — 
When the odometer nears the sinistral cardinal point of the 
zinc disc, its longitudinal proximad motion is replaced by the 
motion I have called clock-rotation. When it is held near 
the dextral cardinal point, versed rotation manifests itself. 

This second result establishes that the longitudinal 
proximad current extends laterally to the edges of the 
disc; but that, when near to them, the force of the co- 
existing transverse current asserts itself, driving the 
odometer (on the left) off in a sinistro-proximad diagonal, 
which ends in the establishment of clock-rotation ; on the 
right driving the central current off, in a dextro-proxiraad 
diagonal, resulting in versed rotation. (See fig. 7.) 

Parallel and opposite results are obtained by the odo- 
meter when these experiments are repeated with the 
copper disc; and necessarily the clock-rotation appears 
near the proximad margin of the disc, the versed rotation 
near the distal edge. 

Therefore it is evident that the great longitudinal and 
transverse currents extend over the whole disc, but not 
beyond it. Experiment a, section II., and figs. 3 and 4, 

20* 



230 THE SOLUTION. 

show that, immediately beyond the cardinal points, single 
forces are in operation. 

Other interesting results follow from trying with the 
odometer the extra-marginal spaces between the cardinal 
points. 

d. First let trie central points between each pair of cardinal points 

be tried with the zinc disc. Result — (see fig. 9 ; ) — a dextro- 
proximad current is manifested between the sinistral and 
distal points, and between the proximal and dextral points ; 
a sinistro-proximad current is manifested between the dextral 
and distal, and between the proximal and sinistral points — 
giving the impression that there exist two diagonal forces, 
comparable to the longitudinal and transverse forces. 

Fig. 10 gives the corresponding, but opposite, results 
obtained upon the copper disc. 

It is, however, doubtful whether these currents traverse 
the whole disc. For if the experiment is made of fol- 
lowing each upon the disc, their influence disappears at 
less than a quarter of the diameter, where the odometer 
is found to obey on the zinc disc the proximad current, 
on the copper disc the dextrad current. Or, probably, 
these currents are the simple expression of the action of 
two equal forces moving the body operated on by them 
(at right angles to each other) in the diagonal. These 
effects thus form a remarkable contrast with the results 
given in figs. 7 and 8, wherein rotatory movements are 
manifested ; and they seem to show that an essential 
element in these rotatory movements is, that one of the 
two currents acting on the odometer must, in the latter 
case, be of superior force to the other. 

e. Repeat the last experiments versed, or with the thumb applied 

to the forefinger. Results — (see figs. 11 and 12) — Tangential 
forces are developed, the directions of which are opposite, 
as obtained over the zinc and over the copper discs. 



THE SOLUTION. 231 

/ Repeat the extra-marginal trials of the odometer in all the 
halves of the inter-cardinal spaces, both with the zinc and 
with the copper discs* (See figs. 13 and 14.) Result — A 
complicated series of rotatory movements, eight for each 
disc • four in each case showing clock-rotation — four versed 
rotation — but opposite in the corresponding spaces of the two 
discs. On applying the thumb to the odometer finger, the 
rotations become exactly inverted ) so that, in that case, fig. 
14 represents what is now manifested in the zinc disc, fig. 13 
what is now manifested in the copper disc. 

III. Motions of the odometer obtained over the same 
class of substances, when of irregular figure and unequal 
thickness. 

a. Let the odometer be held over the middle of a line of four 

sovereigns disposed either longitudinally, transversely, or 
obliquely. Result — Long oscillations over the axis of the 
line of sovereigns. But the oscillations are not of equal 
length. At one end of the line they extend to the edge of 
the fourth sovereign. At the other, they pass an inch be- 
yond it. 

b. Repeat the experiment, touching the odometer-finger with the 

right thumb. Result — Axial oscillations as before, and une- 
qual as before, but in the contrary direction. 

c. Dispose four sovereigns in a line ) then place two others upon 

any one of the four, and hold the odometer over the table at 
three inches to one side of the middle of the line. Result— 
The odometer swings in each instance towards that sovereign 
on which the two additional are placed — but unequally. We 
will suppose that it has swung with sufficient strength to 
reach the disc of the loaded sovereign, — the oscillation in the 
contrary direction is but two inches in length. 

d. Repeat the experiment, with the thumb applied. Results — 

Oscillations ensue of the same length, and they are again 
unequal, but in the contrary direction. Now they do not 
reach the pile of sovereigns by an inch, but they pass three 
inches in the opposite direction. 



232 



THE SOLUTION. 




15 

COPPER 



■(- -"-'- -) 




THE SOLUTION. 



233 




234 THE SOLUTION. 

Thus a force is brought into view having this new 
quality : when the Od-relations of the experimenter are 
versed, a change ensues, not into motion in a plane trans- 
verse to the former one, but the direction of the new mo- 
tion is simply the opposite of the first, or the odometer 
appears to be attracted or repelled towards the Od-subject 
alternately. 

e. Try the same experiment with a single sovereign, or with the 

zinc disc. Result — The odometer held at four inches distance 
is attracted and repelled just as in the preceding instance. 

Then an irregular form of the Od-subject, or its unequal 
mass at different parts, have nothing to do with this new 
motion; and it is evident that the relation of the latter 
to the former class of oscillatory motions will be easily 
determinable. 

f. Lay the proper disc before you (see fig. 15.) and hold the odo- 

meter over the production in each direction of its transversal 
line beyond the limits of the disc. Results — When held near 
the right edge of the disc, as before mentioned, a dextrad mo- 
tion is developed ; that is to say, the odometer moves off from 
the dextral cardinal point of the disc, oscillatively. This move- 
ment, or those oscillations outward, are fainter and fainter, as 
the odometer is held over points more and more remote from 
the disc. At length, at the distance of an inch and a half, the 
odometer becomes absolutely stationary. When moved, how- 
ever, still farther off, motion begins again, which is very lively 
at four to five inches distance from the disc, its direction being 
sensibly toward the disc. Moved farther off, still the same 
motion continues, and is detectable ten to twelve inches off the 
Od-subject. 

When the same experiments are made on the left edge 
of the Od-subject, phenomena just the reverse are mani- 
fested for the same distance. The extra-marginal dextrad 
motion is transverse for an inch and a half. Then there 



THE SOLUTION. 235 

occurs a point of quiescence ; on the other side of which 
the odometer swings in free and long sinistrad or repelled 
oscillations. 

g. Repeat these experiments (fig. 16 ? ) with the thumb applied. Re- 
sult — On the left side the near extra-marginal dextrad motion is 
replaced by a tangential proximad motion; and the centrifugal 
oscillations beyond the point of quiescence are replaced by cen- 
tripetal oscillations. On the right side again, the near dextrad 
extra-marginal oscillations are replaced by a proximad tangential 
current : while beyond the point of quiescence, the remote centri- 
petal oscillations are reversed into centrifugal ones. 

Effects parallel to these are attained at each of the 
cardinal and intercardinal points of the whole circum- 
ference, upon the zinc or copper disc, but as usual always 
reversed. 

Opposite to the eight intervening spaces, the character 
of the remote motion is changed. There it is a rotatory 
motion in a direction the reverse of the rotatory motion 
shown in figs. 15 and 16. 

Thus, there exists all round the disc, at a distance of 
about an inch and a half, a circle of complete repose. 
Within this the proper, or near, extra-marginal move- 
ments of the odometer are manifested: without it, the 
motions of the second and remote force last described. 

But to return to the facts mentioned at the beginning 
of this section. 

The movements of the odometer over a line of sove- 
reigns, or from a distance towards its centre of gravity, 
are evidently the consequences of this remote force coming 
into operation ; the long and forcible oscillations caused 
by which toward or from a remote point override the 
smaller near extra-marginal, and the super-discal forces 
of the Od-subject. 



236 



THE SOLUTION. 



IV. I have next to deal with the effects obtained by 
trying the odometer with mineral bodies, in which elec- 
tric, chemical, or magnetic forces are energizing, or that 
force on which crystalline structure depends, and with 
organized bodies in possession of life. 

In this section, I propose to describe the simple resul- 
tants, analogous to the two diametral movements, ob- 
tained when the odometer is held over a sovereign. It 
will be remembered that, of these two, one only mani- 
fested itself at a time ; and that their meridians were de- 
termined by the person of the experimenter. One move- 
ment was either in the direction of the mesial plane of 
his person, or in one parallel to it — namely, the longitu- 
dinal oscillations ; the other was in a plane at right angles 
to the first. 

The corresponding movements of the odometer with 
the class of bodies now to be considered are rotatory : and 
two, at least, are always simultaneously manifested — one 
a clock rotation, the other a versed rotation. These op- 
posite rotations are likewise always manifested on oppo- 
site sides or opposite ends of the Od-subject, indicating 
the development of polarity. Finally, the force of this 
polarity is such as to render the influence of the person 
of the experimenter nugatory as to the direction of the 
forces. Accordingly, if a horse-shoe magnet is laid in 
any position in reference to the experimenter, clock-ro- 
tation is always obtained by holding the odometer half an 
inch above, and beyond its northward pole ; and versed 
rotation is invariably obtained in like manner at its 
southward pole. The effect of touching the odometer- 
finger with the thumb is exactly to reverse the two ro- 
tations. 

I will now describe the individual instances in which 



HIE SOLUTION. 



237 



these rotations are manifested; or the parts of each Od- 
subject over which the odometer rotates in opposite di- 
rections. 



CLOCK-ROTATION. 

a. A stick of sealing-wax excited by 
friction with flannel or silk. A 
glass tube excited by rubbing it with 
fur. 

b. The zinc disc of an arrangement 
of two zinc and copper discs mois- 
tened with salt and water, the odo- 
meter being held opposite to the 
middle of the zinc disc; for if it be 
held beyond the disc, half an inch 
from and on the exact level of the 
zinc disc, versed-rotation is mani- 
fested round the whole circum- 
ference. 

c. A mixture of half a drachm of bi- 
carbonate of soda and five grains 
of tartaric acid, when effervescing 
upon a plate after the addition of 
water. 

d. The northward pole of a horse- 
shoe magnet, or of a magnetic 
needle freely suspended. 

e. One pole of a large crystal, ichich, 
is to be found out by this experi- 
ment. 

/. The root of a garden weed freshly 
taken from the ground. 

g. The stalk end of an orange, and 
of an apple, and of an orange pip. 

h. The small end of an egg. 

i. The tips of the fingers on either 
hand, and of the toes of either 
foot. 

k. Right side of the head of a spar- 
row. 



VERSED-ROTATION. 

A glass tube similarly excited. 



The copper disc of the same, the odo- 
meter being held over against the 
surface of the copper disc; for 
again, if it be held to the edge of 
the copper disc, the opposite re- 
sult follows, and the rotation is 
clock-rotation. 



A mixture of half a drachm of tartar ie 
acid and five grains of bicarbonate 
of soda. 



The southward pole of the same. 

The opposite pole. 

The leaves of the same. 

The opposite points of the same. 

The large end of the same. 

The top of the thumb and great toe. 

Left side. 



The last holds likewise with the greater part of the 
21 



238 THE SOLUTION. 

human body; but the results of trying the odometer with 
the human frame are so complicated, that I shall reserve 
their consideration for a separate section. 

V. The mechanical solution of these phenomena is 
simple enough. The odometer must be under the in- 
fluence of two constant and unequal rectilinear forces, 
operating at right angles to each other on the gold ring, 
the effects of which are modified by the centripetal force 
of its gravitation. All that is required is, to determine 
by observation the place, direction, and limits of the two 
forces. 

It will render the description which follows easier, to 
suppose that the pole of the Od-subject which causes clock- 
rotation be turned directly from the experimenter; for 
example, that an egg be placed longways to the experi- 
menter with its small end from him, or a bar magnet with 
its northward pole from him. In the case of a horse-shoe 
magnet, both poles are then turned from you. So, too, 
in the case of the hand, the fingers and thumbs are both 
to be turned away. 

a. Odometer held immediately before ; and a quarter of an inch from, 
the small end of an egg. Result — Distad motion, or motion in 
the direction of the long axis of the egg, from the egg. 

b. Odometer similarly held to the great end. Result — Proximad 
motion of the odometer — that is. again ; motion directly from the 
axis of the egg. 

c. Hold the odometer near either side of the egg, one-fifth of the dis- 
tance from either end. Results— Transverse sinistrad oscillations. 
The same current may be detected above the egg on the same 
parallels. 

The effects described are given in fig. 17. Then here 
are, at either end of the egg, two rectilinear currents 
acting at right angles to each other. Fig. 18 represents 



THE SOLUTION. 239 

the complementary motions to the above, which are ob- 
tained by touching the odometer finger with the thumb. 
A parallel combination of rectilinear motions is produced, 
but in another way. 

The next three figures exemplify the composition of 
forces necessary to produce the rotatory motion of the 
odometer. 

Figs. 19 and 20 are intended to represent the large ends 
of two eggs, so placed that the axial currents of the two 
shall cross at right angles, at a point equidistant, let us 
say at half an inch exactly, from the end of each egg. 
If the ring be suspended exactly at the point of meeting 
of the two forces, it will be driven off in the diagonal, 
and continue simply to oscillate in the line A B. But if 
either of the eggs is moved back to double its former dis- 
tance from the point of intersection of the two forces, the 
forces will be rendered unequal, and new results will en- 
sue. The two experiments by which the results of this 
arrangement may be tried are represented in figs. 21, 22, 
and figs. 23, 24. The longer current is necessarily there" 
by the weaker of the two in each combination. Accord- 
ingly, rotatory motion supervenes in each case instead 
of diagonal oscillation ; and the direction of the rotation 
is from the stronger towards the weaker current. 

Figure 25 represents the various motions which may 
be elicited by holding the odometer at the sides or over 
different parts of a horse-shoe magnet. The continued 
lines in all the diagrams represent the primary motions, 
the dotted lines their complementary motions. 

Figures 23 and 27 represent, in the same way, the 
primary and secondary oscillations obtainable over the 
centre of, or parallel to the needle. 

Figures 28 and 29 represent the motions displayed by 



240 THE SOLUTION. 

the odometer, when it is held above various points in the 
interval between two sovereigns, placed upon the table 
an inch and a half asunder. Compound effects follow/pro- 
duced by the joint influence of the two bodies. 

VI. I will finally describe the phenomena elicited by 
the odometer from the living human frame, including 
those which are dependent on difference of sex. 

Parties to experiments with the odometer may be in 
the position either of Od-subjects, or of reversers of its 
effects in the hands of others, or they may be themselves 
components of the odometer. 

I can discover absolutely no difference in the results 
obtained by the odometer on men and women, when 
treated as Od-subjects. The following results appear to 
me equally obtainable with persons of both sexes. 

With the exception of the arms below the elbows, the 
wrists and hands, and of the legs below the knees, the 
ankles and feet, the two sides of the person display the 
polar differences already noticed. If the odometer be 
held over the right side of the head, (either front or 
back,) over the right side of the face, over the right 
shoulder or elbow, or right knee, it exhibits clock-rota- 
tion. Held over the same parts on the left side, it ex- 
hibits versed-rotation. On touching the odometer-finger 
with the thumb, these effects are of course reversed. 

If the odometer be held over the middle and outside 
of either arm, or over the middle and back of either fore- 
arm or hand, it oscillates longitudinally and towards the 
hand or foot. On reapplying the thumb, these longitu- 
dinal oscillations are replaced by transverse oscillations, 
having a direction outwards — L e., away from the mesial 
plane of the frame. 

The phenomena last described show that the primary 



THE SOLUTION. 241 

idea of a transverse polarity for the whole frame is still 
verifiable, even in the extreme parts of either limb. But 
below the elbows and knees a second polarity is super- 
induced upon the former. Below the elbows and knees, 
one side of each limb repeats the phenomena of the right 
side of the body, the other those of the left. The odo- 
meter held over the tips of the fingers of either hand ex- 
hibits clock-rotation, over the thumb of either hand versed- 
rotation ; and with these, as I have mentioned, all the 
other effects that can be elicited out of the two limbs of 
a horse-shoe magnet. The same rotatory movements 
may likewise be obtained by holding the odometer near 
the two edges of the hand, wrist, forearm. The latter 
singularity, which contrasts with the simpler effects on 
the upper arm, must result from the combination of the 
two polarities — the systemic and the submembral one. 

The odometer, held over the back of the neck or throat, 
oscillates transversely. When versed, longitudinally. 

It appears to me now that women generally are inca- 
pable of eliciting the movements of the odometer when 
held by themselves, without touching a second party. 

I have already, in the introductory part of this letter, 
given a summary of all the modes I am acquainted with 
of reversing the motions of the odometer. 

Perhaps I have presumed too much in heading this let. 
ter with the title of "The Solution." But what is the 
solution of physical phenomena but the displaying of the 
forces which compel their sequence? As an inquiry pro- 
gresses, a few general expressions take the place of the 
first imperfect and complicated explanation. But the 
first step made was still a solution; and the highest solu- 
tion ever yet obtained has probably still to be merged 
in some expression yet more general. So the attraction 

21* 



242 THE SOLUTION. 

of gravitation is probably connected with, or balanced 
by, a corresponding repulsive force, coming into opera- 
tion at some enormous distance from the centre of each 
planetary sphere, and the two may eventually prove to 
form one law. 

But I had hoped that I was not presuming in asserting 
that the present inquiry has immediate practical applica- 
tions, such as seldom fall to the lot of so young an inves- 
tigation. The odometer may prove a useful test of the 
presence and qualities of electric, chemical, and magnetic 
actions; it will probably help to determine the electro- 
chemical qualities of bodies ; and in large or small crys- 
talline masses — in the diamond, for instance — will serve 
to show the axes and distinguish the opposite poles. In 
reference to biology, it will probably furnish the long- 
wanted criterion between death and apparent death; for 
I observe that, with an egg long kept, but still alive, 
though no longer likely to be very palatable, the odo- 
meter freely moves in the way described in the fourth 
section. But it treats the freshest egg, when boiled, as 
if it were a lump of zinc. 

Nevertheless I am not without certain misgivings. I 
suspect that the divining-ring will be found to manifest 
genuine Od-motions in the hands of as small a number as 
succeed with the divining-rod. And I fear that overhasty 
confidence in results only seemingly sound, may lead 
many astray into a wide field of self-deception. 

POSTSCRIPT. 

An accident has given me the opportunity of making 
further additions to this little volume, of which I proceed 
to avail myself; and, first, by communicating my latest 
experiments with the divining-ring, July 24. 



THE SOLUTION. 243 

I. I have stated that, if a fresh egg be placed upon 
the table, with the small end directed from me — or a 
crystal, with one definite pole so turned from me — or a 
bar-magnet, with its northward pole so disposed — and I 
then suspend the divining-ring half an inch above either 
of the three so averted ends, and half an inch further 
off from me, the ring exhibits clock-rotation in each in- 
stance. Held in a parallel manner over the opposite 
ends — that is, half an inch from, and half an inch higher 
than, the same — the ring exhibits versed-rotation. If 
the three Od-subjects be moved round, so that their 
hitherto distal ends point to the right, or if they be 
further turned, so as to bring the previously distal ends 
now to point directly towards me, the ring continues to 
exhibit exactly the same motions as in the first instance. 

If, these objects being removed, I lay a horse-shoe 
magnet on the table before me, with its poles turned di- 
rectly from me, the northward limb being on my left 
hand, the southward limb-pole on my right, and experi- 
ments parallel to those just described are made, the re- 
sults remain the same. If, near one side of the horse- 
shoe magnet, I lay my left hand on the table, the palm 
downwards, the thumb held wide of the fingers, the ring, 
if suspended half an inch from and above either of the 
finger-points, displays clock-rotation; suspended similarly 
before and above the point of the thumb, versed-rotation. 
Or the fingers of the left hand, so disposed, may be com- 
pared, in reference to Od, to the northward pole of a 
horse-shoe magnet, while the thumb corresponds with its 
southward pole. 

If, removing my left hand, I turn the horse-shoe 
magnet, without altering the side on which it rests, half 
round, so that the poles point directly towards me, the 



244 THE SOLUTION. 

northward pole being" now, of course, on my right, the 
southward pole on my left, the ring held as before over 
either of the two poles, displays the same results. If I 
now move the magnet still nearer to me, so that its two 
poles are an inch beyond the edge of the table, I can 
obtain results which furnish a more precise explanation 
of the two rotatory movements already described, than I 
had before arrived at. 

If I now suspend the ring, with its lowest part on a 
level with the magnet, and half an inch from its north- 
ward pole — that is, half an inch nearer me — it begins to 
oscillate longitudinally, with a bias towards me, as if it 
w r ere repelled from the pole of the magnet. If I then 
suspend the ring an inch vertically above the first point 
of suspension, it begins to oscillate transversely, with a 
bias towards the right, or as if impelled by a dextrad 
current. If I then lower the ring half an inch, the first 
effect observed is, that it oscillates obliquely, being evi- 
dently impelled at once to the right and towards me — 
that is, in the diagonal of the two forces, of each of 
which I had before obtained the separate influence. In 
this third variation of the experiments, I have brought 
the ring^to~the limit of the two currents, where both tell 
upon it. This oblique oscillation soon, however, under- 
goes a change: it changes into clock-rotation, showing 
that the transverse or dextrad current is stronger than 
the longitudinal or proximad current. 

If parallel experiments be made at levels below that 
of the pole of the magnet, corresponding but opposite 
results ensue. If the whole series be repeated upon the 
south pole of the magnet, opposite but perfectly corre- 
sponding results are again obtained: and similar results 
may be obtained with the two poles of an egg. 



THE SOLUTION. 245 

II. The mode in which I have latterly educed the ro- 
tatory movements depending upon galvanism, has been 
this. I have laid two discs, one of zinc, the other of 
copper, one on the other, having previously moistened 
their surfaces with salt and water. Then, as I mentioned, 
the ring held over the middle of the zinc disc (that being 
uppermost) exhibits clock-rotation. Held over the middle 
of the copper disc, when that is laid uppermost, versed- 
rotation. I mentioned, too, that if held beyond, but 
near the circumference of the same discs, the direction 
of the motion of the ring is reversed. 

The discs which I employ are circular, an inch and a 
half in diameter, and about as thick as a sovereign. 
Upon these I do not fail to obtain, when dried and used 
singly, the first series of phenomena described in the 
preceding letter. But it occurred to me to try what 
would be the result of suspending the ring over the two 
together, and alternately laid uppermost, when they had 
been well cleaned and dried. This is evidently a still 
simpler voltaic arrangement than when the salt and water 
is additionally used. The result was in the highest de- 
gree interesting. When I suspend the ring half an inch 
above the centre of the copper disc, (that being laid up- 
permost,) the first motion observed is transverse; but 
after a few oscillations it becomes oblique — dextrad and 
proximad combined, in the diagonal between the primary 
influences of the zinc and of the copper. This change 
does not last long; the transverse force again carries it, 
in this instance, and clock-rotation is permanently 
established. When the zinc is uppermost, the correspond- 
ing opposite phenomena manifest themselves; and in 
either case a reversed movement occurs, if the ring is 
held extra-marginally to the discs. 



246 THE SOLUTION. 

III. I may say that I have now obtained positive evi- 
dence that these motions of the odometer do not depend 
upon my own will, or the sympathy of my will with ex- 
isting conceptions in my mind ; for they succeed nearly 
equally well when the discs are covered with half a sheet 
of writing-paper. In nine cases out of ten, when I thus 
manage to be in perfect ignorance which disc, or what 
combination of the two, is submitted to the odometer, the, 
right results manifest themselves, and the cause of the 
occasional failures is generally obvious. Let me add 
upon this topic, that one day, the weather being cold and 
wet, and myself suffering severely with rheumatism, the 
odometer would not move at all in my hand. On another 
day, late in the evening it was, when I happened to be 
much fatigued and exhausted, the ring moved, indeed, 
but every motion was exactly reversed; thus my left 
hand I found now obtained exactly the results which, on 
other occasions, I got with the right. 

IV. But by what cause, then — through what mecha- 
nism, so to speak, are the movements of the odometer im- 
mediately produced? Early in the inquiry I made this 
experiment. Instead of winding the free end of the silk 
round my finger, I wound it round a cedar-pencil, and 
laid the latter upon the backs of two books, which were 
made to stand on their edges, four inches apart, with 
the Od-subject on the table between them, the ring being 
suspended half an inch above it. The ring, of course, 
remained stationary. Then I took hold of the pencil 
with my finger and thumb, at the point where the silk 
was wound round it; my finger and thumb rested on the 
silk ; but no motion of the odometer ensued. Hence it 
follows, that the odometer is, after all, always set in 



THE SOLUTION. 247 

motion ly the play of my oivn muscles. I venture then 
to suppose that my sentient nerves, unknown to me, 
detect on these occasions certain relations of matter — let 
me call them currents of force — which determine in me 
reflexly certain sympathetic motions of the very lightest, 
and even of an unconscious character. This idea, which 
I am sure affords the just solution of the matter, is highly 
consistent with some observations which I have before 
recounted. It explains how the primary delicate im- 
pression should yield to the coarser influence of a strong 
conception in the mind, that this or that other motion of 
the ring is about to follow r , or even to that of a vivid and, 
so to say, abstract conception of another motion. It 
explains what I have several times verified, that on cer- 
tain days a person standing behind me with his hand on 
my ear, or on my shoulder, can, by an effort of his will 
(mine not resisting,) make the odometer which I am 
holding move whichever way he happens strongly to 
image to himself, without communicating the same to me. 
It explains to me on what the difference consists between 
those who can set the divining-ring in motion, without a 
conscious effort, and those w T ho cannot. The former, it 
will be found, are persons of so great nervous mobility, 
that any such motions, if their occurrence be forcibly an- 
ticipated by them, will certainly be realized by their 
sympathetic frames. Among this class should be sought, 
and would still remain to be detected by experiment, those 
w T hose impressionability by Od should prove commensu- 
rate with their nervous mobility. Finally, I cannot doubt 
that the view which I have thus arrived at respecting the 
mechanism of the motions of the odometer, is equally 
applicable to the explanation of those of the divining-rod. 
I see that, through its means, many before anomalous 
facts, with the narrative of which I have not bored the 



248 HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 

reader, which emerged in my former trials of the divining 
rod, made by the hands of others, lose their obscurity 
and contradictoriness, and leave the whole subject in the 
condition of an intelligible and luminous conception. 

N. B. — It is a pity that of the inquirers who now 
amuse themselves with investigating these subjects, very 
few realize in their minds the idea of Von Reichenbach, 
that Od, though often exhibiting the same relations with 
electricity and magnetism, is yet an utterly different 
principle. 



LETTER XIV. 

Hypnotism. Trance-Umbra. — Mr. Braid's discovery — Trance-facul- 
ties manifested in the waking state — Self-induced waking clair- 
voyance — Conclusion. 

It is an advantage attending a long and patient ana- 
lysis of, and cautious theorizing upon, a new subject of 
inquiry, that when fresh facts and principles emerge in 
it, instead of disturbing such solid work as I have sup- 
posed, they but enrich and strengthen it, and find, as it 
were, prepared for them appropriate niches. Something 
of this satisfaction I experience, when I have to render 
tardy justice to Mr. Braid's discovery, and to give an ac- 
count of the wonders realized by Dr. Darling, Mr. Lewis, 
and others. 

Or, I have observed, that trance, considered in refe- 
rence to its production, has a twofold character. It pre- 
sents itself either as a spontaneous seizure brought on 
unexpectedly by a continuance of mental or physical ex- 
citement or exhaustion; or as intentionally induced 
through the systematic direction by some second person, 



HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 249 

more or less cognisant what definite effects he can pro- 
duce, of certain moral and physical influences upon the 
party intended to be wrought on. Mr. Braid has added 
a third causal difference to the theory of trance. He 
has shown that trance can be induced by the subject of 
it himself voluntarily, by the use of certain means, which 
call into operation a special principle. The effects which 
he obtained by these means, but which he perhaps studied 
too much to separate from the effects of mesmerism — 
these and their principle he denominated Hypnotism. 

Again, I have shown that all the forms of trance may 
be, and require to be, arranged under five types — viz., 
death-trance, trance-coma, initial trance, half-waking 
trance, full-waking trance. I mentioned, besides, that 
in the manifestation of Zschokke's seer-gift, and in the 
accounts which we receive of the performances called 
second-sight, the extended exoneural perception was in- 
troduced by a brief period, in which the performer was 
in a degree absorbed and lost, yet did not pass on into a 
second and separate phase of consciousness. He was 
still always himself, and observed and remembered as 
parts of his natural order of recollections the impressions 
which then occurred to him. This same state must be 
that which I have seen described as one peculiarly suited 
to the exhibition of phreno-mesmerism. Mr. Braid ap- 
pears likewise often to have brought it on in his curative 
applications of hypnotism. But now it has new import- 
ance and distinctness conferred upon it, as being the state 
in which the wonderful phenomena of " mental suggestion'' 
are best displayed, and in which conscious clairvoyance 
is manifested. As this state does not amount to complete 
trance, but as it is a fore-shadowing of it, as it were, I 
venture to propose for it the name of trance-umbra. 
22 



250 HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 

I. Hypnotism. — Mr. Braid discovered that if certain 
sensitive persons fix their sight steadily upon a small 
bright object, held near and above the forehead, or their 
sight becoming fatigued, and the eyelids fall, if they keep 
their attention strained as if they were still observing the 
same object, both in the upward direction of the eye and 
in their thought, they lose themselves and go off into a 
state which, in its full development, is, in fact, initial 
trance, bordering often on trance-coma. The party thus 
fixed sometimes exhibited many of the humbler perfor- 
mances of ordinarily mesmerised persons. But Mr. Braid 
shall speak for himself; I quote from his NeMrhypnologyj 
published in London in 1843. "I requested,'' narrates 
Mr. Braid, "a young gentleman present to sit down, and 
maintain a fixed stare at the top of a wine-bottle, placed 
so much above him as to produce a considerable strain 
on the eyes and eyelids, to enable him to maintain a 
steady view of the object. In three minutes his eyelids 
closed, a gush of tears ran down his cheeks, his head 
drooped, his face w T as slightly convulsed, he gave a groan, 
and instantly fell into profound sleep — the respiration 
becoming slow, deep, and sibilant, the right hand and 
arm being agitated by slight convulsive movements," 
(p. 17.) Again, (p. 18,) "I called up," continues Mr. 
Braid, " one of my men-servants, who knew nothing of 
mesmerism, and gave him such directions as were calcu- 
lated to impress his mind with the idea^ that his fixed 
attention was merely for the purpose of watching a che- 
mical experiment in the preparation of some medicine ; 
and being familiar with such he could feel no alarm. In 
two minutes and a half his eyelids closed slowly with a 
vibrating motion, his chin fell on his breast, he gave a 
deep sigh, and instantly was in a deep sleep, breathing 
loudly. In about one minute after his profound sleep, I 



HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 25 L 

roused him, and pretended to chide him for being so 
careless, said he ought to be ashamed of himself for not 
being able to attend to my instructions for three minutes 
without falling asleep, and ordered him down stairs. In 
a short time I recalled this young man and desired him 
to sit down once more, but to be careful not to fall asleep 
again, as on the former occasion. He sat down with this 
intention; but at the expiration of two minutes and a 
half, his eyelids closed, and exactly the same phenomena 
as in the former experiment ensued." Mr. Braid adds, 
11 1 again tried the experiment of causing the first person 
spoken of to gaze on a different object to that used in 
the first experiment, but still, as I anticipated, the phe- 
nomena were the same. I also tried on him M. Lafon- 
taine's mode of mesmerising with the thumbs and eyes, 
and likewise by gazing on my eyes without contact; and 
still the effects were the same." 

It is indeed perfectly obvious that Mr. Braid succeeded 
in producing a heavy form of initial trance in these cases. 
Nor is it easy to get rid of the impression that the effect 
was not partly at least owing to his personal Od influence. 
But, remembering what I witnessed of his performances, 
and construing candidly all his statements, I am disposed 
to believe that his method, adopted by the patient when 
in a room alone, upon himself, would throw susceptible 
persons into trance. Mr. Braid appears to me to have 
the double merit, first of having discovered the means of 
self-mesmerising — of so disturbing by very simple and 
harmless means the nervous system, that trance would 
appear without the influence of a second party to aid its 
supervention — and secondly, of having, at an early period, 
when prejudice ran very high in England against these 
practices, availed himself of this disguised mesmerism to 
do much good in the treatment of disease. Mr. Braid 



252 HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 

does not appear to have fallen on any instances of clair- 
voyance, but he narrates many observations relating to 
phreno-mesmerism. 

II. Trance- Umbra. — This is the best title I can hit on 
to designate the peculiar condition, the study of which 
promises to exceed in interest that of any of the phases 
of perfect trance; inasmuch as in this state the same 
extraordinary powers are manifested as in trance, with- 
out the condition of an abstracted state of consciousness, 
which rendered the possession of those powers useless, at 
least, directly, to the person who manifested them. It 
is true that this law could be broken ; the mesmeriser can 
desire an entranced clairvoyante to remember, when she 
awakes, any particular event or communication made by 
her. But for this exceptional power a special injunction 
or permit is necessary. In trance-umbra, on the contrary, 
the subject is throughout himself. When exhibiting the 
wildest phenomena he is conscious of what he is doing, 
and preserves afterwards as accurate a recollection of it 
as any of the spectators. 

Then, how is trance-umbra induced ? How is it known 
that the shadow of trance has enveloped the patient, and 
that, though quite himself to all appearance, he is in a 
state to manifest the highest trance-faculties ? 

The way to induce trance-umbra, is to administer a 
little dose of mesmerism. One operator, like Dr. Darling, 
(I quote from Dr. Gregory's most instructive and inte- 
resting Letters on Animal Magnetism,) directs his patient 
to sit still with his eyes fixed, and his attention concen- 
trated on a coin held in his hand, or on a double-convex 
bit of zinc with a central portion of copper so held. This 
is, in truth, a gentle dose of hypnotism. The patient 
looks in quiet repose at a small object held in his hand 



HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 253 

or his lap, instead of fatiguing his sensations by straining 
the eye-balls upwards. Suppose a group of a dozen 
persons sitting thus in a half-darkened, still room, pre- 
serving a studied quietude, and concentrating their atten- 
tion on one point of easy vision ; in from fifteen to twenty 
minutes one or more is found to be in the state of trance- 
umbra. Mr. Lewis (I quote again the same authority) 
employs a different process. He eyes his patients intently 
as they sit in a row before him, still and composed, with a 
concentrated will, and its full outward expression by him, 
to influence their psychical condition. In five minutes it 
often happens that the state of trance-umbra supervenes. 
In the mean time, what has marked its arrival? The 
Rev. R. S. F. writes me, that he had been three times 
the subject of the first of the two methods: the operator 
was Mr. Stone, Lecturer at the Marylebone Scientific 
Institution. The first two experiments were successful, 
the third failed. Then Mr. F. writes, " The only circum- 
stance which I noticed (bearing upon the above question) 
in myself, and which I afterwards found tallied with the 
experience of others, was this : On the two occasions 
when I was affected, after about ten minutes the coin 
began to disappear from my sight, and to reappear a 
confused, brilliant substance, similar to those appearances 
which remain on the retina after one has been looking 
towards the sun for a few minutes, and I seemed for the 
moment to have fallen into a half-dreamy state ; but in the 
subsequent part of the experiments, I appeared to myself 
to be in my ordinary state. On the third occasion, when 
the experiment failed with myself and with all the others, 
(which I think might be accounted for by the accidental 
irregularity of the proceedings,) I did not experience the 
sensations mentioned above." This account tallies with 

22* 



254 HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 

other evidence upon the point; a brief period of disturbed 
sensation, or threatening confusion, or loss of conscious- 
ness, passes over the patient. The wing of the unseen 
power, to speak figuratively, has cast its shadow upon 
him. It is evident that this transient psychical disturb- 
ance is the same phenomenon with that which Zschokke 
experienced whenever his seer-gift was manifested. The 
agency which thus can at pleasure be used to call forth 
trance-umbra, is the same which employed longer, or more 
intensely, produces perfect trance. The little dose thrill- 
ing through the system, without driving sense and ap- 
prehension from their usual seats, seems, as it were, to 
remove their fastenings; to throw up, as it were, the 
sashes of the body, so that the soul can now look forth 
and see, not as through a glass, darkly, but free to grasp 
directly things out of its corporeal tenement, whether of 
the nature of matter or mind. 

But, at the same time, this same loosening of physical 
bonds renders the mind correspondingly denuded to ag- 
gressions from without. We have seen how strangely 
the entranced mind becomes sympathetically subject to 
the will, and the subject of the sensations of the person 
with whom it has been brought into mesmeric relation. 
But now a new feature, or one feebly manifested as yet 
in trance, but parallel to the influence of sympathy, dis- 
plays itself. The person in trance-umbra is an absolute 
slave to the spoken, or even to the unexpressed " mental 
suggestions" of the operator. Sense, memory, judg- 
ment, give way at his word. The patient believes what- 
ever he is told to believe, — that an apple is an orange, — 
that he himself is the Duke of Wellington, — that the 
operator standing before him is invisible to him,— and 
makes fruitless efforts to execute any voluntary move- 
ment the moment he is told he cannot. I will quote a 



HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 255 

passage, in illustration of the above, again from Mr. F.'s 
letter : — " After a quarter of an hour Mr. Stone came to 
us, and looked in our eyes for a few seconds, and desired 
us to close them. He then placed his thumb lightly on 
my forehead, and said, peremptorily, ' You cannot open 
your eyes.' I had great difficulty in doing so, but at last 
succeeded, with a violent struggle. After Mr. Stone 
had repeated the order or suggestion once or twice more, 
I was quite unable to open my eyes. Five out of the 
number, (about a dozen,) who sat down were affected, all 
more than myself. On a succeeding evening, however, 
Mr. Stone was able to proceed so far as to make me forget 
my name and address, by the simple assertion, c You can- 
not remember your name,' &c, though he had before this 
just asked for them, and the answer was scarcely out of 
my mouth when he made me forget it. I think I never 
exerted my will more strongly than in trying to open 
my eyelids when they had been thus closed; but it ap- 
peared simply impossible to do this till the operator's 
magic i All right,' immediately set them free. On several, 
who were highly susceptible, Mr. Stone proceeded with 
other experiments. A stick was said to be a rattlesnake, 
and believed to be so. The room became a garden at 
his command, with wild beasts in it. One was set a-fish- 
ing and snow-balling; another taken up in a balloon. A 
still more curious instance was when the subject was told 
that he was in the dark, and a candle was passed before 
his eyes, almost close enough to singe the eyebrows, with- 
out producing any visual impression on the eye, though 
the party operated on said he felt the warmth of it." 

I have preferred giving additional and unpublished 
evidence of the wonderful control which can thus be 
"suggestively" exercised over the belief of a person in 
trance-umbra, to quoting Professor Gregory's most inte- 



256 HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 

resting cases, for which the reader must consult his recent 
valuable work. In the sixth letter in the present volume, 
(that on Somnambulism,) I have exemplified the manifes- 
tation of the same phenomena in the case of the sleep- 
walker Negretti. As a large number of persons can 
be thrown easily into the state of trance-umbra; and as 
then they are totally in the power of the operator, it is 
surely most desirable that this and the parallel easily 
induced conditions of the frame should be made subjects 
of careful observation and study by many competent per- 
sons, in order that the conditions necessary to their in- 
duction may be exactly ascertained, and made public, 
for the protection of society. 

Of equal interest is the discovery that clairvoyance 
may be manifested in the state of trance-umbra. Major 
Buckley is spoken of by Professor Gregory as a gentle- 
man possessing mesmerising force of a remarkable quality 
and degree. It appears that he had been long in the 
habit of producing magnetic sleep, and clairvoyance in 
the sleep, before he discovered that, in his subjects, the 
sleep might be dispensed with. Dr. Gregory gives the 
following account of his present method : — 

"Major B. first ascertains whether his subjects are 
susceptible, by making, with his hand, passes above and 
below their hands, from the wrist downwards. If certain 
sensations, such as tingling, numbness, &c, are strongly 
felt, he knows that he will be able to produce the mag- 
netic sleep. But to ascertain whether he can obtain 
conscious clairvoyance, he makes slow passes from his 
own forehead to his own chest. If this produce a blue 
light in his face, strongly visible, the subject will proba- 
bly acquire conscious clairvoyance. If not, or if the 
light be pale, the subject will only become clairvoyant 



HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 257 

in the sleep, (that is, when in perfect trance.) Taking 
those subjects who see a very deep blue light, he con- 
tinues to make passes over his own face, and also over 
the object — a box or a nut, for instance — in which written 
or printed words are enclosed, which the clairvoyante is 
to read. Some subjects only require a pass or two 
to be made : others require many. They describe the 
blue light as rendering the box or nut transparent, so 
that they can read w T hat is inside. This reminds us of 
the curious fact mentioned by Von Reichenbach, that bars 
of iron or steel, seen by conscious sensitives, without any 
passes, shining in the dark with the Od glow, appeared 
to them transparent like glass. If too many passes are 
made by Major B., the blue light becomes so deep that 
they cannot read, and some reverse passes must be made 
to render the colour of the light less deep. Major Buck- 
ley has thus produced conscious clairvoyance in eighty- 
nine persons, forty-four of whom have been able to read 
mottoes contained in nutshells purchased by other parties 
for the experiments. The longest motto thus read con- 
tained ninety-eight words." "A lady, one of Major 
Buckley's waking clairvoyantes, read one hundred and 
three mottoes contained in nuts in one day, without a 
pass being made on that occasion. In this and in many 
other cases, the power of reading through nuts, boxes, 
and envelopes, remained, when once induced, for about 
a month, and then disappeared. The same lady, after 
three months, could no longer read without passes ; and 
it took five trials fully to restore the power. This may 
be done, however, immediately by inducing the mesmeric 
sleep and clairvoyance in that state, when the subjects, 
in the hands of Major Buckley, soon acquire the power 
of waking clairvoyance." 

But stranger things remain behind — corollaries, how- 



258 HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 

ever, of the preceding, yet which eclipse these wonders, 
if possible. For a knowledge of these, I am exclusively 
indebted to Professor Gregory's recent publication, and 
I give them on his authority. 

If the looking intently upon a piece of metal will pro- 
duce trance and trance-umbra, why should not the ac- 
count of the Egyptian boy-seers be correct? If their 
performance be often a trick, may not the protracted 
gaze on the black spot in their hand sometimes render 
them waking clairvoyantes ? and why, on the same show- 
ing, might not the gazing upon magic crystals or mirrors 
of jet occasionally have thrown the already awe-struck 
and fitly disposed lookers on them into the state in which 
either the magician at their side might compel sugges- 
tively images into their fancy, or they, acting for them- 
selves, have exercised independent ultravision, retro- 
vision, prevision? Why, again, should not simple con- 
centration of thought upon one uninteresting idea convert 
a susceptible subject into a soothsayer? Then read the 
following facts recorded by Dr. Gregory; I at least do 
not question their fidelity. 

" Mr. Lewis possesses at times the power of spontane- 
ous clairvoyance, by simple concentration of thought. 
He finds, however, that gazing into a crystal substance 
produces the state of waking clairvoyance in him much 
sooner and more easily. On one occasion, being in a 
house in Edinburgh with a party, he looked into a crystal, 
and saw in it the inhabitants of another house at a con- 
siderable distance. Along with them he saw two strangers, 
entire strangers to him. These he described to the com- 
pany. He then proceeded to the other house, and there 
found the two strangers whom he had described. ,, 

" On another occasion he was asked to inspect a house 
and family, quite unknown to him, in Sloane Street, 



HYPNOTISM — TRANCE-UMBRA. 259 

Chelsea, he being in Edinburgh with a party. He saw 
in the crystal the family in London ; described the house, 
and also an old gentleman very ill or dying, and wearing 
a peculiar cap. All was found to be correct, and the 
cap was one which had lately been sent to the old gentle- 
man. On the same occasion Mr. Lewis told a gentleman 
present that he had lost or mislaid a key of a very 
particular shape, which he, Mr. L., saw in the crystal. 
This was confirmed by the gentleman, a total stranger 
to Mr. Lewis." 

u Sistimus hie tandem." 

I think that I have tolerably succeeded in establishing 
the thesis with which these Letters started, that every 
superstition is based on a truth; and I am in hopes that 
the mass of evidence which I have adduced — the very 
variety of the phenomena described, joined to their mutual 
coherence — the theoretical consistency of the whole, as 
if it were truly a vast body of living science, and not the 
"disjecta membra" of a dream — will remove every re- 
maining shade of doubt among candid readers, that these 
inquiries are not less sound than they are curious. 



CONCLUSION. 

An acquaintance with the facts which it has been the 
object of the foregoing pages to assemble, and to render 
into philosophy, suggests one or two serious reflections. 

We have seen the different results which have ensued 
when these facts have emerged into day in times of igno- 
rance and in times of enlightenment. On the first oc- 
casion they were viewed with terror — became instruments 
of superstition — were used for bad designs — and even 
originated new forms of crime, before which common 



260 CONCLUSION. 

sense fled, and justice became blind and iniquitous. On 
the latter — I speak of the reception of these facts towards 
and in the present century — they were recognised by one 
after another of the most sagacious observers of nature ; 
by Jussieu, for instance, and by Guvier, to begin with ; and 
gradually by an increasing host of candid, well-informed, 
and able followers, as forming a part of natural science, 
and as susceptible of important applications. 

He is ranked among the wisest of mankind, who an- 
nounced that "knowledge is power." Divine Wisdom 
goes further, and reveals to us that knowledge is a good 
and virtuous thing, while ignorance is stamped by the 
same seal as sinful; or how otherwise can we interpret 
the course of history and human experience, which proves 
that, by the very constitution of our being, and the laws 
impressed upon the moral and physical world, increase 
of knowledge contributes to promote general and indi- 
vidual well-doing and happiness, while ignorance never 
fails to be followed by the contrary penal consequences ? 
Therefore it is that those who unite good intentions and 
good principles, with sound and well-cultivated abilities 
— in other words the truly wise — humbly deem, that 
among the most acceptable offerings to our common Maker 
must be diligence in exploring all the sources of know- 
ledge which he has placed within our reach, (which were 
hidden only that we might seek for them,) so as to unveil 
more and more of the forces and powers of nature, in 
publishing the same abroad, that all may profit by them, 
and in striving to bend their agencies towards good, and 
high, and useful purposes. 



THE END. 



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